Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Financial Planning for Ladies

I am asked to write an article on financial planning for ladies. How are the needs for young ladies different from young men?

Most of the needs are similar, i.e. to save for the future, to have liquidity, to have a good yield and to protect against risk of premature death or illness.

There are some risks of female illnesses and events connected with childbirth. And females live longer than males, so there is a need for more savings to take care of a longer life expectancy and long term care.

There is also the special needs for unmarried females. However, this situation should also apply to unmarried males.

I like to invite comments on this matter, especially from ladies.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Women have a higher rate of morbidity so disability insurance is much more important for them. Particularly with more women staying in the work force.

Another tip is for married women, if they are in a bad marriage is to have their own money, seperate from the couple money so that they can leave, if need be.

I wholeheartely agree with your longer life expectancy and LTC comments. Therefore, women should be able to manage their own finances (know how to pay the bills, etc), so that if they are widowed they are able to take care of this themsleves.

January 05, 2010 9:11 AM
Anonymous said...

Women, especially single women, are usually expected to be carers for their elderly parents. Married sons have their own families; married daughters may provide day-to-day care for the parents which may involve expenses or may require the women to reduce or even stop their work.

I'm not saying this is right or wrong but this tends to be the expectation of children.

January 05, 2010 11:10 AM
Anonymous said...

Women generally have a lower risk tolerance than men. Being a woman myself, I invest in:

1) money market funds

2) guaranteed return endowment plans (I'm getting 3.37% p.a. to 3.6% p.a. for funds invested since 2003 and 2004 for 10 years, bought with cash and SRS funds)

3) bank preference shares (I applied for the OCBC 5.1% preference share at launch)

4) Singapore Gov't bonds (bought with SRS funds)

4) REITs which have strong fundamentals and offer decent dividends

5) ETFs

6) I've also transferred my CPF monies from the OA to SA to enjoy a higher interest rate (though the rate is set to drop after 31 Dec 2010)

January 05, 2010 12:25 PM
Anonymous said...

Yes, as a woman, I tend to go for lower-risk investments to make me feel better.

But whenever I am in casinos, there are plenty of women gambling!

January 05, 2010 5:57 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...

I thank the contributors for your suggestions, which were useful to me. I have used these materials for my article to the National Service Recreation and Country Club magazine.

January 05, 2010 11:54 PM
Anonymous said...

I agree that single women seem to end up with the bulk of the physical work of caring for elderly parents or even other elderly family members. This is unfair and places a heavy financial burden on them when they are old and facing financial depletion.

I would therefore like to suggest that it is better for women to marry (marry a man that you can respect and love and has a decent income) AND have their own fund stashed away.

After all, the man you respect today may run off with another woman tomorrow, the man you love today may hate you tomorrow, and the decent income can be destroyed by unemployment, sickness, disability, etc.

January 06, 2010 11:05 AM

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