I asked over 100 Indian women what they did with their money

… and this is what I found

Since I have a fondness of understanding investor behavior apart from reading regularly about personal finance, I came across a study by Merrill Lynch in 2014 about ‘Women and Investing: A Behaviour Finance Perspective’. The report covers gender comparatives across various aspects including:

Mindset towards risk, approach towards investing and defining purpose of investments.

Here is how the report’s first para reads:

“According to new Merrill Lynch research, gender differences among investors tend to be overstated. In fact, the ways in which men and women approach their financial lives are often strikingly similar. Understanding who they are as investors can help women better focus on ways to successfully work toward their personal goals.”

This made me pause and think. How did women closer home really think about money? How did they go about their investments? I put out a short 10-question survey of my own and circulated amongst those around me, closer to my community of Urban Indian Middle Class women.

I received around 120 responses within 48 hours — and here are is the broad demographic summary:

• 65% of these women were between 25–45 years of age (30% were 25–35 yrs old, 35% were 35–45 yrs old)
• 76% of these women earned their own money either through a full-time job, their own business or freelance work

So these were primarily earning women, under-45 years.

Here are the overall findings of the survey:

• Only 19% of the women who had a source of income, save or invest first and spend what is left.
• Over 60% of the women who took this survey had planned for a financial goal in the last 12 months, but when it came to taking assistance for investment decisions to meet such goals, only 25% used professionals — the majority going with the comfort of advice from friends and family.
• The biggest challenge this group faced was the lack of understanding of financial products (25%), followed by the lack of personalized advice
• Their current portfolio included mostly Fixed Income products and Real Estate.
• The 40% who had not set a financial goal in the last 1 year, were the ones clearly dependent on family and friends for advice or did not take any financial decisions. This segment clearly called out that they ‘did not care’ about managing money and found it too tedious. 40% of them admitted that they did not understand financial products and felt goal-less.
• Interestingly, 50% of those surveyed would like to learn about Effective Budgeting, Money Management Ideas, Goal-Based Financial Planning. Only a handful mentioned product-specific literacy (the highest being in Mutual Funds).

Here is what I took away from this early, and of course, limited dataset study:

• Most of these women had financial goals and interest in their money, but hand-holding was missing
• Most of these women lacked knowledge of basic money and investment principles
• They preferred the close connect with family and friends on this subject versus professionals/investment communities
• They definitely wanted to learn about Money Management and Goal- Based Planning — maybe not specifically about each product right away

This short survey made me feel connected, even more, to so many women around me, like me, who work so hard to earn and are seeking answers on how to make their money work for them.

I am not yet sure how women are different than men as investors, but I feel confident now, more than before, that there are oh-so-many who are ready to truly work towards financial independence in the truest sense!

If you are an Indian women on this journey with me, drop a hello in the comments!