A peep into any women’s financial portfolio and you will realise how traditional savings and deposits account for a major part of their investments. This is mainly due to their low-risk nature coupled with the fixed returns that explain their popularity and pervasiveness till date.
Fixed Deposits Secure Women’s Future
One of the earliest and most popular investment tools for women include fixed deposits (FDs) that involve depositing money for fixed periods. Offered by banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) at varying interest rates depending on investment tenures, these investment tools go a long way in helping to save money for the future. The best part of paying for them is that the returns earned on them have nothing to do with market movements, thus, labelling them as risk-free.
FD Options Available
There are multiple FD options available that women many choose from:
- Bank FDs: Offered by both public and private banks, women can buy FDs of any amount more than Rs. 5000. These FDs are available with an insurance of Rs. 100,000. Though the returns earned do not beat inflation, parking money in these FDs occasionally helps create a corpus in the long run.
- Company FDs: Sold by NBFCs, one can buy FDs sold by reputed housing finance companies at high-interest rates. Similar to bank FDs in nature, tax benefits on them remain the same, thus, establishing the scope of higher returns coupled with safety and stability.
How do Women Benefit from FD investments?
There are a lot of benefits associated with investments in FDs, which means that women have a lot to gain if they consider investing in them with increased frequency. Some of them include:
- Stability of returns: The idea of guaranteed returns induces many people to invest in tools that continue to assure returns on the principal amount irrespective of market fluctuations. As market undulations do not affect the working of these FDs, they are deemed as a more reliable investment tool by those who do not understand the economics of the market.
- Added benefits for senior citizens: Senior citizens have a reason to rejoice as they get to earn more returns on their principal money. Most banks and NBFCs give roughly 0.25 higher fixed deposit rates to their senior citizen customers.
- Loan availability: Fixed deposits serve as great collateral as women can secure loans on them. Most banks and financial institutions lend an amount equivalent to nearly 70 per cent of the principal amount. The lending rates are, however, two per cent more than the existing fixed deposit rates.
- Investment flexibility: One can start with small investments depending on financial viability. Depending on one’s financial goals, both small and big investments can be made in FDs.
- Tenure flexibility: One can choose to invest in FDs for a week to more than five years. This means that there is investment flexibility coupled with the facility of premature withdrawal of the amount invested.
Women inclined to know how much they can earn through FD investments can simply use the FD Interest Calculator available online by filling in the investment amount and checking returns accordingly.
