Women are 'recklessly cautious' with savings, prefer to park money in FD, PPF

Women are 'recklessly cautious' when it comes to saving as nearly 58 per cent prefer to park their money in either fixed deposits, public provident fund (PPF) or letting it lie in their savings account, according to a survey.

Besides, 6 per cent respondents said they preferred to buy gold, while 15 per cent of them picked mutual funds to invest their excess income, the survey by Scripbox, which provides online financial services, said.

Scripbox, which undertook this survey in the first two weeks of October 2019 on leading Facebook Communities, received inputs from 400 women. Of these, 54 per cent were millennials, 56 per cent were non-millennials.

Three fourths of millennial women overwhelmingly favour saving, the survey noted.

Setting aside money for vacations emerged as the goal for one in six millennials.

In contrast, half of non-millennials pursue investment goals such as building up a retirement corpus or setting aside funds for their children's education, according to the survey.

While tax saving schemes such as PPF and LIC, and fixed deposits are important for this age group too (33 per cent of respondents), 26 per cent of the respondents clearly realised the role that mutual funds can play in helping them attain their long term financial goals, it added.

Besides, the survey said nearly 44 per cent of the women said easy access to their money is important to them when they save or invest their hard earned money.

"Saving and investing are two sides of the same coin and are used interchangeably. However, there's a big difference in what each delivers. Savings is money set aside for emergencies which offer minimal or no rate of return.

"Investments, on the other hand, are a systematic approach to wealth creation. Investing in market-linked financial instruments can actively help to beat inflation,grow your net worth over the years, and prepare you for what lies ahead college for the kids, taking care of yourself in retirement," Scripbox CEO Ashok Kumar said.

As per the survey, women's risk averse behaviour to money qualifies this finding as creating an emergency fund topped their agenda with nearly 36 per cent picking this, followed by setting aside money for their children's education (28 per cent) and building a retirement corpus (26 per cent).

Nearly 25 per cent of women polled admitted to not having a financial goal in mind.

About 28 per cent of the women said they were confident of their approach to financial planning and meeting their life goals, while 15 per cent preferred leaving financial planning matters in the hands of one of their family members.

However, 44 per cent of women polled said they would welcome additional help in financial planning.