Financial independence is real freedom, says Meghana Malkan  

Independence has very many different aspects but today I would like to review it in the light of women’s independence. It’s a paradox that we are still talking about this subject more than 75 years after the country has been independent.

The reality seems to be that financial independence among women is evident but unfortunately, it prevails only in a certain layer of women. It has still not penetrated across the country—across all divisions, societies, and classes.

Being independent literally means to not depend on another for livelihood or subsistence. But, the social divide between the darker and fair sex gets wider as we enter into money, finance and wealth conversations.

When faced with questions like “do you manage your own finances independently or "do you make investment decisions for your spouse or your family?”, women hardly have answers.

The ignorance on financial matters was prevalent all throughout immediate surfaces. Conventionally, finances have been part of the male domain, be it managing the family assets, co-ordinating with the wealth managers or so on.

This is one of the primary reasons that the wealth-generation activities eluded women much until the last decade.

But with the arena now opening up, one witnesses the presence of women in mainstream investment fields across asset classes—be it real estate or the stock markets because ultimately, financial independence is fundamental independence.

We live in the modern age where the professional independent woman wants to claim her share of independence. Well, most of us do. This is a widely accepted fact that women make better money managers.

The ability to diversify extremely well, the skill to balance multiple things at a time and an eye for details have them going way ahead of men as far as finances are concerned. What then could they do become frontrunners in taking up this responsibility?

The key is to learn, since knowledge is always the key. Learning to make one’s own independent investment decisions was never so easy.

I believe it is upon each of us, as part of the tribe, to keep learning as well as pushing and raising each other’s ambition to embark upon this new journey of discovering financial freedom for ourselves.

While at the same time, it is also upon men to include women into the financial decision-making process. Let us not forget that we are collectively responsible for leading the coming generation into the new set of beliefs that wealth and finances are the equal responsibility of both.

So, take the first step. Learn. There is no better power than to discover confidence in yourself.

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