www.outlookmoney.com

JULY 2012

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C O L L E C T O R S S E R I E S 1

Sometimes big ideas can have small beginnings. It was in early 2011 that my colleagues Abhijit Mitra and Pheji Phalghunan suggested that we write a major article on women and personal finance. While mainstream media has

made it a habit of publishing a standard article, on the personal finance of women, on or around 8 March, Women’s Day, I must admit that I didn’t find the idea particularly exciting. After all, principles of personal finance management are gender-neutral. The question was: What new and special insights would we offer our readers, especially our women readers? During the course of the year, we kept revisiting the idea till the Eureka moment happened in early 2012. We realised that women, in the course of their lives, often face situations that men don’t: relocation due to marriage, career disruption on childbirth, re-entry into the corporate rat race, or a complete career switch to achieve work-life balance. Along with those are possible mishaps such as divorce or loss of spouse. Then, there are emerging realities of more and more women joining the work force and being part of the “India Growth Story”. Finally, increasing life expectancy is making a long retired life common, more so for women, who outlive men by about five years on an average. All these have financial implications for the urban Indian woman. To deal with them she needs comprehensive information and advice—something that is unavailable at the moment. This collector’s edition aims to help women take charge of their financial lives.

To celebrate our 15th year, we plan to bring out a number of collector’s editions for our readers. This is the first and we hope it will stay by their side and get bliss-fully dog-eared. This issue is the culmination of days of hard work of the entire Outlook Money team, especially project leader Pheji Phalghunan, and my other women colleagues, Teena Jain Kaushal and Kavya Balaji, who wrote the bulk of the articles. To capture a slice of life of the contemporary urban Indian woman and her outlook towards money, they met numerous women across the country,

while the team of photographers, consisting of my colleagues Bhupinder Singh, Nilotpal Baruah, R.A. Chandroo and Vishal Koul worked tirelessly to capture the best pictures. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this issue and keep referring back to it. ❒

A Fair Deal

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(Udayan Ray)editor@outlookmoney.com

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EDITOR Udayan RayDEPUTY EDITORS Abhijit Mitra, Clifford AlvaresSENIOR EDITORS Pankaj Anup Toppo, Sunil DhawanPROJECT LEADER Pheji PhalghunanCONSULTING EDITORS Mohit Satyanand, Swami Saran SharmaSENIOR ASSISTANT EDITOR Samarpan DuttaSPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS Anagh Pal, Kundan Kishore, Teena Jain KaushalPRINCIPAL CORRESPONDENT Kavya Balaji SENIOR CORRESPONDENTS Ashwini Kumar Sharma, Naveen Kumar CORRESPONDENT Deepali PenkarCOPY DESK Abhigyan Chand, Lakshmi Krishnakumar, Sutirtha Sanyal (Deputy Copy Editors)ART Manojit Datta (Art Editor), Anirban Bora (Associate Art Director), Saji C.S. (Principal Designer), Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma (Sr. Designer), Varun Vashishtha (Chief of Graphics) PHOTOGRAPHY Soumik Kar (Photo Editor), Bhupinder Singh (Chief Photographer), R.A. Chandroo (Principal Photographer), Nilotpal Baruah, Vishal Koul (Sr. Photographers) TECH TEAM Anwar Ahmed Khan, Hasan Kazmi, Manav Mishra, Raman Awasthi, Suraj Wadhwa

EDITORIAL CHAIRMAN VINOD MEHTA

BUSINESS OFFICE PRESIDENT Indranil RoyCFO Vinodkumar PanickerADVERTISEMENT VICE PRESIDENT Johnson D’silva NORTH Kailash Lohani (Regional Manager) WEST Manoj Nair (AGM), Suchitra Vaidya, Devesh ShettyEAST Moushumi Banerjee Ghosh (GM)SOUTH Taroon Kumar (Reg Mgr), Sunil RajuGENERAL MANAGER Kabir Khattar (Corp)CIRCULATION NATIONAL HEADS Hinanshu Pandey (Business Development) GENERAL MANAGER Arokia Raj, B.S. Johar ZONAL SALES MANAGERS Anindya Banerjee (West), G Ramesh (South), Vinod Kumar (North) DEPUTY MANAGER Shekhar SuvarnaPRODUCTION SENIOR MANAGERS Deshraj Jaswal, Shashank Dixit, Shekhar PandeyADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT GENERAL MANAGER Rajendra Kurup

MENTOR MAHESHWER PERI

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Total no. of pages 144 + Covers

Outlook Money does not accept responsibility for any investment decision taken by readers on the basis of information provided herein. The objective is to keep readers better informed and help them decide for themselves.

Cover Design: MANOJIT DATTA, Cover Photo: VISHAL KOUL, Section Cover Photos: Vishal Koul (pg 11), Soumik Kar (pg 75), Bhupinder Singh (pgs 93, 121)

women’s Special

Ms in Charge12 Indian women share a love-hate relationship with money. But, that’s changing

18 Skillfully strategising your finances is key to wealth accumulation before and after your marriage

24 More can be less. With two earning members, make the most of your incomes

30 How to overcome the challenges involved in going back to work after a break

36 Use your sabbaticals for a formal training to boost re-employment opportunities

40 How to make up for lost career time and put yourself back on the growth trajectory

45 Purvi Sheth, CEO, Shilputsi Consultants

Continued on page 10Photo: BHUPINDER SINGH

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46Temporary jobs may just be the thing to help you sail through a career break

52Women may no longer have to face the all-or-nothing question

56 Saundarya Rajesh, founder-president, AVTAR Career Creators & FLEXI Careers India

58There are several fields open to women, make sure your business idea is viable

62Employ tax exemption schemes to ensure that your finances are not lost

66How to make use of the many facilities offered by banks to run your finances

70Improve your chances of getting a loan by maintaining a good credit record

76Choose a life insurance product after careful consideration of what you need

84A quick guide on how to buy affordable health insurance policies

87 Vibha Padalkar, chief financial officer, HDFC Life

88Apart from health and life covers, there is more to protect. Know the other risks

94Fixed income instruments are crucial to a consistent financial growth. Here’s how to pick the most suitable ones

99 Swati Kulkarni, executive vice-president & fund manager, equities, UTI MF

100How to go about investing in equity and what the must-knows and must-dos are

104How to leverage the potential of mutual funds and make them dependable to achieve the best result possible

108Stocks in and around a homemaker seem unaffected by the slowdowns

111 Renu Sud Karnad, managing director, HDFC

112Understand and calculate costs before you try to maximise returns from realty

116Invest in gold and benefit from its unique qualities for a glittering future

120 Sutapa Banerjee, CEO, private wealth, Ambit Capital

122A few wise decisions can ensure finan-cial security after losing your husband

126How to rebuild your life and finances after a marital separation

132Make sure your golden years are not plagued by a shortage of funds

136It’s nice to be able to relax and enjoy your life during late retirement and not worry about money

140DLF Pramerica Life Insurance recentlyconducted a survey on the financial awareness of women in India. We bring you the key findings

women’s Special

How To Surge Ahead, Negotiate Situations And Focus On Your

Milestones

Charting The Smoothest Course

women’s Special

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Readers of a certain generation will remember a print ad from years ago. ‘There are two kinds of women,’ it said, ‘working and working.’ Decades later, it still sums up the common ethos of the Indian woman: whether she is a high-powered

executive juggling home and career or a farmhand looking after her fields and her family, there is little doubt that bal-ancing many roles and responsibilities is no simple matter.

“Women may not have the same levels of freedom as a man because of family, personal and societal factors, but, quite a few women transcend these boundaries to become successful,” says Suresh Bhagavatula, faculty at N.S.

Indian women share a love-hate relationship with money. However, times have changed and so has their approach

Women

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n’s Special

Photos: BHUPINDER SINGH, R.A. CHANDROO, NILOTPAL BARUAH, VISHAL KOUL, PRIYAM DHAR, GOUTAM ROY, A. PRABHAKAR RAO AND VINAYAK VERMA