Many of us lack money management skills. Whether it be men or women money mistakes can be made by anyone. Particularly in Indian society women have an image of a caring person who can take care of the house properly but is not allowed to participate in the financial decision despite managing the household finance for day to day activities. She makes a monthly budget and takes care of your day to day needs.
But, women in India are still evading the responsibility of managing their finances. Social conditioning plays a part here. Even if the women are educated and financially independent they let male members in the family handle the family’s finances. They need to make financial decisions now, if not completely they need to start participating in the financial decisions and plans.
However, this hands-off approach comes with its set of pitfalls.
Let’s know the biggest financial mistakes women tend to make and how they affect their finances.
Lack of Financial Knowledge
The reason behind all the money mistakes that women make is because of the lack of financial literacy/knowledge. They know to make money with their skills and educational qualifications. But most of them don’t take it one important step further and learn financial planning. They are happy with their savings and budgeting skills and don’t bother to learn to invest money and plan for the future.
They need to know that earning and saving money is never enough, they need to learn the importance of investment and financial planning to have a financially secure future.
To start with one can google for initial money management knowledge, take the help of a financial adviser initially and later start investing themself.
Let Others handle their Finances
Most of the women stay away from money matters because many find it daunting. Instead of educational qualifications and good management skills, most women avoid taking money-related decisions. It’s common with women that their husbands or father are filing their taxes even. Forget about investments and other financial decisions, all are made by males. This is not only because women are not allowed to participate in money matters but also because women themselves find it more convenient to transfer the responsibility to the men in the family. As a result, they are never aware of their financial health and financial literacy among women continues to remain low.
Thinking That you Need to be good at math to be good with finances
It’s common thinking that you need to be good at maths to be good at finances. But this isn’t true anyway. To be good at finances and money management skills you need to know the importance of money, investment and calculations can be done using calculators and spreadsheets anyway. So, money management is not rocket science, and one can learn it simply by being aware and conscious about money.
I don’t have time to manage money!
For most women, life gets so busy with family and work. Managing family alone from cooking to taking care of kids, they get so involved that they keep themself restricted to these things only. And when it comes to managing finances, they simply say they don’t have enough time for it. Also, they are scared about the consequences of any of their decisions related to finance goes wrong. Yes, time is needed to get our finances in order. Once the finances are sorted out, then it just requires a bit of time to update and maintain balance. Investing some time weekly or even monthly to manage your money can ultimately do a lot.
Shopping and in Retail Therapy
One of the common things among women which is destructive and can burn serious amounts of money in a short time is impulsive shopping. Whether its dresses, shoes. purses or perfume you can see women spending a lot on these. One may think that spending 1k or 2k on a dress cannot affect finances. But if this is spent regularly, say weekly, or even months it can affect your finances. The end of season sale, festive sales, and so on are one which encourages online shopping and temp most of the women to shop more. Hence, impulsive shopping should be avoided to keep your finances on track.
