Women, Get Ready to Invest and Earn More Now – Helpful Pointers to Invest Better

Despite this natural acumen of saving in women, there exists a wide gender gap when it comes to investing. This should not be the norm as now there exist ample investment opportunities, some particularly curated for women investors. To change the status quo in the gender divide, we have listed simple investing tips for women. To begin with, you don’t need to be a financial expert to start investing. There are experts in the field to guide you and manage your money for you.

Get into the habit of regular investment – Try SIP

If you have never invested before and are unsure about starting with a large sum, SIPs are the perfect fit for you. Systematic Investment Plans (SIP) allow you to invest a specific amount at regular intervals. You may choose between a monthly, quarterly or any other interval period. This investment platform allows you to participate in the stock market without having to keep an eye on when the prices are favourable or otherwise. It is easy to start and is not too heavy on your pockets as you can start with a small amount. But most importantly it involuntarily builds a habit of saving and investing. You can be a salaried person or a homemaker, and SIP has something for both. There are several hand-picked funds at ClearTax that have been curated for differing risk profiles; you may want to visit our pages to know more.

Start early; it’s never too early!

You may be in the prime of your career and retirement might seem like miles away. But saving for retirement, a long term goal that it is, must be done early on in your career.True, you may have a PF fund with your employer but making additional provisions for retirement is always advisable. Go for a PPF or an NPS. While PPF comes with a lock-in period of 15 years, NPS allows you to withdraw some portion of your fund after the 10th year. These are good tax saving options as well as you can get exemptions under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.

Know your risk profile – Explore Mutual Funds

Women who want to take exposure to diversified portfolio at a smaller initial investment may try mutual funds. These offer various categories of assets to choose from – Equity, Debt, Hybrid and Liquid Funds. You may want to start with the less risky option of the list and invest in liquid funds before venturing into other categories. Try funds that create wealth and also offer tax benefits. Equity Linked Saving Schemes (ELSS) is one such option that requires a minimum duration of three years. While investing in ELSS make sure you take into account that Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) tax of 10 percent is levied on ELSS investment gains of over INR 1 lakh.

Give wings to your daughter – Invest in the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

You can start your investing journey by starting an account for your daughter to secure her future. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is a small deposit scheme built exclusively for the girl child. The fund is meant to meet education and marriage expenses of your daughter. What’s even better is that it offers a higher interest rate than your PPF. You may start this fund before your girl reaches 10 years of age and continue to deposit money till the completion of 15 years. The scheme matures after 21 years from the date of opening the account. To know more about SSY, you may visit ClearTax for a detailed guide.

Choose an Investment Platform to Keep Up with the market

It may not be possible for you to stay up-to-date with every market development and investment opportunity. It is important that you pick a platform that has all this information and also the investment options for you to pick from. The platform must offer simple user-interface where even a novice investor will feel confident to understand and invest. These providers will also have especially curated funds that are picked after careful and expert consideration.

The Bottomline

Investing is not a matter of how much you know about the market or how much knowledge you possess regarding the sharemarket. You may be completely unknown to this domain and yet there are avenues for you to invest in. All you require is some basic understanding of how you plan your finances, following which you may seek guidance from an expert to help you allocate your funds in various forms of investments. If you are unsure, visit ClearTax, where we have experts picking out the best investment options for you; all you have to do is pick one that matches your profile.

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