Being a woman in the workforce is not an easy task or trip. Taking care of your family and your profession are two different sets of responsibilities that must be balanced. In their quest to strike the perfect balance between their personal and professional life, many women fail to take their financial status into consideration. Even if your spouse could be working very hard to pay the family’s bills, you still need to handle your funds carefully.
Given that personal loans are among the most flexible loan options, here are six financial planning suggestions for women to help you improve your chances of getting a personal loan and that too at low IDFC personal loan interest rates:
Maintain an emergency reserve to pay for unforeseen expenses. If you have an appropriate emergency fund on hand, it is easier to handle financial emergencies like an unanticipated job loss, a catastrophic sickness, or any other unforeseen incident that stops regular money input. It’s crucial for working women to establish and keep an emergency fund that is at least six times larger than their average monthly expenses. You have the choice to keep a separate emergency fund or make joint payments even if your spouse has been keeping one that includes EMIs for your IDFC personal loan.
The optimum amount of capital protection and liquidity for your emergency fund can be found in high-yielding savings, liquid funds, or short-term investments because emergencies can happen at any time. As a result, you can continue paying off personal loans in installments as needed from your emergency fund.
Choose term insurance to protect your family’s future: As a working woman, it is your responsibility to make sure your family will be financially secure in the event of your dying. A term insurance policy would operate as a replacement for your income and give your loved ones enough money in the form of an assured sum to continue paying off personal loans, regular monthly bills, and investment contributions after you pass away. You must choose a separate term insurance plan with coverage equal to at least 10-15 times your annual salary, regardless of whether your spouse has enough term insurance in place.
When compared to other insurance policies like money back policies or endowment plans, keep in mind that term insurance offers a bigger sum insured amount at comparably very low premiums. Also keep in mind that section 80C of the tax code allows you to write against the expense of your term insurance premium.
Purchase trustworthy health insurance to cover medical expenses. With our nation’s rising medical costs, just one hospital stay is enough to wipe out all of your life’s savings. You must choose a reputable health insurance plan to cover the medical costs for you and your family. Be cautious not to completely rely on the health insurance provided by your company, even if it is available, as it may not be adequate and will expire once you shift jobs. You may choose to choose a family floater plan as a working woman and include your kids in it. You can also get a top-up medical coverage to cover medical expenses in the event of an accident or disability.
Under section 80D, the premium for health insurance for you, your spouse, your parents, and your dependent children is deductible.
Utilize women-specific savings accounts if you’re a working woman looking to apply for a IDFC personal loan. By choosing women-specific savings accounts over conventional savings accounts, you may take advantage of extra perks that various banks are offering. Numerous savings accounts targeted toward women offer a range of advantages, including cash backs on certain purchases, accident insurance, discounts, a lower minimum balance requirement, doorstep banking, reduced IDFC personal loan interest rates, waived loan costs, etc.
If a shared loan is an option, take it. Regardless of the reason for taking out a personal loan, such as urgent financial necessities, house improvements, etc. Working women who need a loan should think about getting a combined loan with their partner. You would gain the advantage of increasing your chances of being approved for a personal loan overall.
Continue early investment for other life goals. All such long-term goals require an early investment for timely accumulation of target corpus, whether the goal is to construct your retirement corpus, establish a corpus for your child’s higher education and marriage, or both. Working women who intend to apply for a personal loan or who are already paying off personal loan EMIs should periodically discuss their goals with their spouses and families so that they may be prioritized and investments can be made to help them be realized. In your effort to obtain or repay the personal loan, don’t compromise or overlook those life goals. Maintaining a balance is crucial, as is controlling IDFC personal loan EMIs and investment payments.
Keep in mind that the sooner you begin investing toward the desired outcomes, the longer your money will have to grow and take advantage of the power of compounding. Consider investing in equity mutual funds to meet long-term objectives, defined as those with an investment horizon of five years or more. Equity mutual funds have historically beaten other asset classes and inflation by a significant margin.
Moreover, choose the SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) approach when investing in mutual funds to avoid the necessity to correctly pace the market. By making regular, systematic contributions at defined dates and intervals, SIPs promote financial discipline and help the goal corpus accumulate on schedule.
Final words
Last but not least, let’s emphasize the importance of paying off your loan EMIs on schedule.
Make sure you develop the practice of paying the EMIs on time as a working woman. Your ability to build and maintain a high credit score is facilitated by timely and disciplined repayment of your credit card debt and EMIs, which is positively reflected in your credit report. Having a high credit score may help you get better credit cards with better rewards and lower interest rates on loans such as attractive IDFC personal loan interest rates.
On the other hand, any type of repayment delay has the potential to lower your credit score, which would also reduce your chances of receiving a IDFC personal loan in the future and would subject you to the application of related penalties and fines. Additionally, if you consistently skip debt payments, your creditors could put you on their blacklist and potentially label you as a defaulter.