Last Updated on December 16, 2023 at 7:33 am
We recently recorded an episode on women and investing for the Let’s Get Rich with Pattu podcast (it should be released when this article is published). As I prepared for it, I realised that it was my fault that my wife was not interested in personal finance.
My wife says, “As long as I have my money for my needs and as long as you do not screw up our investments by doing something stupid, I have no interest in learning money management”.
We have seen many cases where the main money manager in the family suddenly dies, and the partner (often the wife) has difficulty tracing the investments made and getting good advice on how to proceed further.
So, it is pretty dangerous not to be aware of household investment and goal-based strategies. However, women like my wife are not to blame. In my family, I am to blame.
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I take her role in the kitchen for granted. I expect her to cook daily, so it is only fair that she takes my role as the money manager for granted. When I do not show interest in cooking, how can I expect her to show interest in personal finance?
Even after this revelation, I am unlikely to take any interest in cooking besides its prompt consumption (Sorry, not my thing). And she is unlikely to be interested in investing (not her thing). So what is the solution?
Fortunately, because I keep mentioning people like Melvin Jospeph, Swapnil kendhe, Avinash Luthria, Vikram Krishnamoorthy, and Ashal Jauhari, she is more than likley to contact one of them for advice if I am not around. She is just uninterested, not unintelligent.
And because she is an experienced troubleshooter (a Phd does that to you), I am sure she will manage. All I need to do is show her the details of our investments. This is quickly done with the freefincal mutual fund and stock tracker on Google Sheets. The contact of the above-mentioned SEBI registered fee-only advisors is on the sheet.
She can access this file, which is bookmarked on her browser window. In addition, she knows the master password of our password manager, and that should be enough to access my email and other investments. As of date, I only use a feature phone for all my OTPs, which needs no unlocking. Beyond this, we rely on providence.
In the recently concluded client survey, 12.7% of 970 people sought help from a fee-only financial advisor even though they can DIY “to ensure the spouse does not suffer or make money mistakes in their absence”. We strongly recommend this route. You can work with our curated list of advisors: List of Fee-only Financial Planners in India (SEBI RIAs)