India’s female labour force participation is 26%. Although there is ample scope for improvement, women in the workforce are progressing rapidly. As their salaries increase, they are keen to shortlist the best investment options to secure their future. These women park a portion of their salary in several investment options. This will not only diversify their risk but also help to achieve their investment goals. There are a lot of options for investments for women that help money grow according to their risk appetites.
Let us check out some of them:
1. Fixed Deposit Account
Women who want their investment to grow at a slow pace, but prefer security over growth, can open a fixed deposit account. You can invest a portion of your savings or your entire savings in a fixed deposit scheme and watch your investment grow. In this type of investment, the amount of investment and the tenure of the investment will be decided by the investor.
However, the financial institution with which you have decided to invest will decide the rate of interest for the investment. Some of them provide high FD rates, while most of them don’t. The rate of interest hovers around 6% for individuals and 7%, for senior citizens across most financial institutions. They provide you with a fixed income as per the guidelines of the lender. If you withdraw funds before the maturity period, you will have to forego a certain amount as charges. PNB Housing is one lender which provides up to 8.40%
It is an investment option that provides insurance coverage as well as an option to invest a portion of your money in the market. You get an option to park your money either in equity or debt instruments or both. You will get an account to monitor the growth of your money continuously. If you feel the market is not performing well, you can switch the money from equity to debt funds to save a loss. The minimum amount is Rs. 1,00,000 and the age limit is 45 years.
3. Public Provident Fund
PPF is an excellent investment to invest and get secured returns. The total returns you get after the tenure of the investment is completely tax-free. Instead of simple returns, this instrument fetches you a compounded rate of interest. This will increase your return manifold. You can open a PPF account in a post office or a nearby bank. This account will give you a return of 7.6 % compound interest on the amount you invest, and the lock-in period for this amount is 15 years.
4. Mutual funds
This is an excellent investment option for creating wealth over the long term. Several life goals can be achieved by investing in mutual funds. Mutual funds offer inflation beating returns. One must select a mutual fund based on investment objective and other factors. The fund manager will invest in equity, debt and other appropriate instruments. A certain portion would be held as cash to manage redemptions.
5. National Pension Scheme
The national pension scheme also gives the investor the option to instruct in various investment instruments like equity, bonds. This is one of the safest investment options as it has government backing and gives the security of investment to the investor.
6. Senior Citizen Saving Scheme
This is one of the best investment options for women above the age of 60. It offers an interest income at the rate of 8.6% per annum and they provide steady and consistent cash inflow to meet the expenses of the aged people.
7. Kisan Vikas Patrika
If you want to invest in an investment plan that gives double the returns on maturity, then it makes sense to go with Kisan Vikas Patrika. You have to keep your money invested in this plan for 9 years and five months, after which it will fetch you a lump amount.
8. Gold
Indians have always been obsessed with gold. It will not fetch you any immediate returns. But the value of Gold increases gradually over time. Considering this fact, many banks and MMTC sells gold coins of various denominations. Indian women have been thrifty about investing and holding gold since generations. This comes in handy when funds are suddenly required as one can either sell gold or pawn it.
In short, there are many investment options for women in India. A fixed deposit account with high FD rates remains one of the best and safest investment options among all other investment options.