A mutual fund is a professionally managed company that collects money from many investors and invests it in securities such as stocks, bonds and short-term debt, equity or bond funds and money market funds.
Mutual funds are a good investment for investors looking to diversify their portfolio. Instead of betting everything on one company or sector, a mutual fund invests in different stocks to try to minimize portfolio risk.
The term is typically used in the US, Canada and India, while similar structures around the world include the SICAV in Europe and the open-ended investment firm in the UK.
Why is financial independence important for women?
Enough has been written and talked about financial independence especially with reference to women in the last two decades. But what does financial independence mean for women? It’s subjective and can mean different things to different women. For a working woman, it can mean being able to make her own financial decisions or being able to support herself financially. For a housewife, it can mean being able to spend money when she wants or being able to support herself during emergencies.
At the grassroots level, financial independence makes women feel more secure and respected regardless of their socio-economic background. This automatically has a transmission effect not only on women, but on their families, society and the country in general. Women who are more financially independent mean a more progressive, healthier, safer and less partisan society. Financially independent women become role models for their children and help eradicate the age-old gender biases that are deeply ingrained in our culture. Financial independence also helps women retire early to enjoy the blessing of life after all the struggle they have gone through.
If women’s financial independence is so important, how can women help themselves achieve it first before families, corporations and government intervene? The simple answer is to be a disciplined investor regardless of a woman’s financial earning skills and educational background. Whatever your financial strength and educational background, unless a portion of your earnings is spared and invested wisely in the right place in a disciplined manner over time, you will always remain unprepared to deal with emergencies such as job loss, medical expenses, or even the loss of a earning family member.
Today, women
work in a variety of roles, but not all working women are financially independent. Most working women still depend on the men in the family when it comes to making investments. In addition, they may not save enough or even if they are saving, savings may not be made smartly, that is, it is barely able to beat inflation. This is where women can learn to rely on mutual funds that offer a disciplined way to invest for the long term through a systematic investment plan (SIP). Even if a woman has little or no income, she can still set aside only Rs.500 from her savings to start a monthly SIP that helps her get closer to financial independence. So it is important for every woman to realize that she makes women feel that investing in mutual funds is easy and achievable.