IIMB's Human Resources Department and Staff Recreation Club organize virtual talk on 'Financial Independence for Women' as part of Women's Day celebrations
Speakers were Lakshmi Iyer, CIO - Fixed Income at Kotak Mahindra and Sriiroopa Rao, Director - Marketing at CleverTap and an IIMB alumna; talks revolved around busting myths regarding women being involved in financial planning; the importance of planning, saving and investing, and medical insurance plus saving for healthcare purposes
15 March, 2021, Bengaluru: One of the most critical and pertinent issues facing women today is the lack of involvement of women in financial planning. To address this issue, IIMB's Human Resources Department and the Staff Recreation Club organized a virtual talk on March 12 (Friday), 2021 to discuss 'Financial Independence for Women’, as part of Women’s Day celebrations. Lakshmi Iyer, CIO - Fixed Income at Kotak Mahindra, and Sriiroopa Rao, Director - Marketing at CleverTap and an IIMB alumna, were the speakers for the session. The discussion was moderated by Prof. Gopal Mohapatra, Professor of Practice, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management, and Chairperson of the two-year weekend MBA at IIMB - Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM).
Lakshmi Iyer’s talk focused on various financial incentivization schemes by Kotak for women, how they benefit women and the way forward. She started the discussion by addressing various stereotypes that are often attributed to different professions. She said, "While cooking is seen to be a skill that women predominantly possess, most Michelin Star chefs happen to be men, whereas sports like wrestling which are often viewed as male dominated, have several women outshining men". Hence, other myths around women being involved in financial planning can similarly be busted. According to her, any profession is gender agnostic. So, the main question revolves around how to get more women to the front on financial planning. She discussed the importance of planning, saving and investing, and stated that women need to be aware of how much money they will need in the future to sustain their current lifestyle since inflation will drive prices higher.
Instead of investing what is left after expenditure, it is advisable to spend what is left of income after investment. Investments require a disciplined lifestyle, and there is no right age to start investing. According to Ms. Iyer, allocating investment to different asset classes is an essential part of financial planning. The portfolio needs to be diversified, and money needs to be prudently allocated to different classes like assets, equity and gold. She stated, "Fixed deposits are like lemon juice that can be depended on all year round, equity is like energy boosters that can push up the returns on investment, and gold is like the protector that can be relied upon in times of need." With this analogy, she explained the importance of diversification.
Sriiroopa Rao’s talk focussed on the importance of financial independence for women elucidating on the why, how and what of it. She discussed the importance of removing stereotypes that negatively impact women. She explained how she always maintained a ‘rainy day fund’ for emergencies and how it proved to be beneficial to her. According to her, it is more important to remove the stereotypes and change society's mindset than to spread awareness on financial planning since stereotypes seem to be the primary reason women do not consider themselves capable of making financial decisions.
The event concluded with a Q&A session, where several questions regarding investing and financial planning were raised. An important topic discussed was that of medical insurance and saving for healthcare purposes. According to the speakers, medical insurance is key to a person's wellbeing and needs to be planned for early on in life.
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IIMB's Human Resources Department and Staff Recreation Club organize virtual talk on 'Financial Independence for Women' as part of Women's Day celebrations
Speakers were Lakshmi Iyer, CIO - Fixed Income at Kotak Mahindra and Sriiroopa Rao, Director - Marketing at CleverTap and an IIMB alumna; talks revolved around busting myths regarding women being involved in financial planning; the importance of planning, saving and investing, and medical insurance plus saving for healthcare purposes
15 March, 2021, Bengaluru: One of the most critical and pertinent issues facing women today is the lack of involvement of women in financial planning. To address this issue, IIMB's Human Resources Department and the Staff Recreation Club organized a virtual talk on March 12 (Friday), 2021 to discuss 'Financial Independence for Women’, as part of Women’s Day celebrations. Lakshmi Iyer, CIO - Fixed Income at Kotak Mahindra, and Sriiroopa Rao, Director - Marketing at CleverTap and an IIMB alumna, were the speakers for the session. The discussion was moderated by Prof. Gopal Mohapatra, Professor of Practice, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management, and Chairperson of the two-year weekend MBA at IIMB - Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM).
Lakshmi Iyer’s talk focused on various financial incentivization schemes by Kotak for women, how they benefit women and the way forward. She started the discussion by addressing various stereotypes that are often attributed to different professions. She said, "While cooking is seen to be a skill that women predominantly possess, most Michelin Star chefs happen to be men, whereas sports like wrestling which are often viewed as male dominated, have several women outshining men". Hence, other myths around women being involved in financial planning can similarly be busted. According to her, any profession is gender agnostic. So, the main question revolves around how to get more women to the front on financial planning. She discussed the importance of planning, saving and investing, and stated that women need to be aware of how much money they will need in the future to sustain their current lifestyle since inflation will drive prices higher.
Instead of investing what is left after expenditure, it is advisable to spend what is left of income after investment. Investments require a disciplined lifestyle, and there is no right age to start investing. According to Ms. Iyer, allocating investment to different asset classes is an essential part of financial planning. The portfolio needs to be diversified, and money needs to be prudently allocated to different classes like assets, equity and gold. She stated, "Fixed deposits are like lemon juice that can be depended on all year round, equity is like energy boosters that can push up the returns on investment, and gold is like the protector that can be relied upon in times of need." With this analogy, she explained the importance of diversification.
Sriiroopa Rao’s talk focussed on the importance of financial independence for women elucidating on the why, how and what of it. She discussed the importance of removing stereotypes that negatively impact women. She explained how she always maintained a ‘rainy day fund’ for emergencies and how it proved to be beneficial to her. According to her, it is more important to remove the stereotypes and change society's mindset than to spread awareness on financial planning since stereotypes seem to be the primary reason women do not consider themselves capable of making financial decisions.
The event concluded with a Q&A session, where several questions regarding investing and financial planning were raised. An important topic discussed was that of medical insurance and saving for healthcare purposes. According to the speakers, medical insurance is key to a person's wellbeing and needs to be planned for early on in life.
Click here for photo gallery