FINANCIAL SOVEREIGNTY

Take these steps to enusre you’re free of money worries at every stage of your life.

- Radhika Sathe-Patwardhan

Whether you are a working mother, a homemaker, or a single career woman, you need to ensure that you stay on course when it comes to money matters. “The first step in the journey to becoming financially fit and independent is to understand your financial patterns,” says Priti Rathi Gupta, founder of LXME, a financial planning platform for women “This means that it is essential to not only be aware of your earnings, but also of your significant expenditures.” She suggests using a journal or an online spreadsheet to note down your financial behaviour.

Kritika Jha, a 25-year-old from Bengaluru, who started working in IT a year ago, uses a mobile app to track her expenses. “When I did not keep track, I used to end up having the bare minimum left at the end of the month, just before the next salary got credited. Once I started keeping track, I realised I was spending unnecessarily on things that I didn’t really need.”

Invest And Grow

Incidentally, Rathi Gupta believes that women are born money managers. “When they are risk-aware, disciplined, and are able to make informed decisions and stay calm under stress, women can easily go from managing home budgets to being ₹46,000smart investors,” she avers. “When women begin to invest and grow their money, they have the potential to bring about societal change, because they begin by investing back into their community and children.”