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Women’s Day 2021: Women Should Be The Boss Of Their Money

Mar 08, 2021

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Image: Internationalwomensday

Women have to wade through multiple hurdles to achieve financial security.

In conjunction with International Women’s Day today, the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) tells us one of the struggles women encounter is income inequality.

“We do see a lot of statistics that have been proven that women do earn less than men and of course, when we look at another factor, divorce, or when there’s an issue of the death of the partner, it obviously hits the women harder here and there’s a lot of statistics showing single mums struggling.”

The longevity conundrum is also a harsh reality for women when it comes to financial planning, says the AKPK’s head of household financial education Nirmala Supramaniam.

Women need a bigger financial reservoir than men to ensure their financial security in their old age, she explains.

“This is because women live longer, so as we live longer the planning needs to take place. Like in Malaysia, the life expectancy of men is around 75 while for women it is about 78.” 

There’s also the gender pay gap issue that women have to deal with.

But, if you’re married then it gets even more challenging where money, financing, investing, and earnings are concerned.

“Many women are actually working in addition to being a caregiver, balancing between careers and looking after their family.”

“They would not be able to work long hours. This could actually be a hindrance in terms of income and also when we look at their retirement funds… I mean obviously there would not be much savings there.” 

Because of this, she says more women should start planning their finances and gain investment knowledge.

 “Once you have the knowledge then yes you would know, if I am starting to accumulate assets, I would definitely have to protect them as well. So insurance and takaful knowledge is also very important.” 

“We do see a lot of women who are not too keen on investments… because we tend to be more conservative in nature.”

Nirmala also says it’s good for women to start investing as early as possible, as they will have more time to do research on investments and prevent them from making desperate financial moves near or during retirement.

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day celebration is #ChooseToChallenge.