As women, many of us are still conditioned to believe that matters of the wallet should be left to the male members of the family. Even in households where women are financially independent, money management is considered to be a function of testosterone and despite having sufficient financial knowhow, they leave it upto their husbands, fathers or brothers.

Attitudes like these are rooted in age old gender stereotypes that assign women to the realm of household responsibilities and caregiving and men have to be adept at providing material comforts and security for their families. As such, women mostly remain absent from tables where money conversations take place and this sets an example for their children as well – the impact is more profound for female kids.

This Daughter’s Day let us make a pledge to ensure our daughters develop the confidence to reserve a place for themselves at those tables and make themselves capable of managing finances on their own without having to turn to the male members of the family. Given that our education system lays little emphasis on teaching kids basic money management skills, parents have to step in to fill the gap to leave no stone unturned to make their young daughters financially savvy. As a parent to a girl child, here is how you can initiate them into the realm of financial literacy:

1) Children emulate their parents and hence parents should strive to make them participate in money matters of the household in an age appropriate way. Older children can be made to partake in a broader way instead of simply just confining them to saving money in their piggy banks for their wants. Mothers leave a deep impression upon their daughters when it comes to managing household chores, careers and finances. They can play a key role in shaping the attitudes of children about money management and this includes involving children of both genders in a comparable manner. For instance adolescent daughters can be taught basic in budgeting household expenses so they can learn to prioritize between their needs and wants.

2) Granting small allowances to children from a young age is a norm in many Indian households. Parents can utilize that as a great starting point for teaching kids to value money. For example, young girls can be taught that for anything new that they demand, they would have to perform a houshold chore for a certain number of days to 'earn'. This will help them grasp the concept that money is a finite resource and wastage should be minimized. Parents of adolescent girls can encourage them to start earning by way of tuitions for younger kids, baking a cake, babysitting or even setting up a pop up store in the neighbourhood during vacations. These can lay the foundation of a perspective on the importance of financial independence.

3) As daughters grow older, parents can move from having conversations about small expenses to serious topics like taxes and investments including the plans the parents may have made for their daughters’ futures. Routine conversations between parents and daughters can make them money wise from a tender age and this can be very encouraging for the children as well to see their parents trust them.

4) The habit of saving and investing in the right instruments like mutual funds, fixed deposits etc can also be initiated from adolescence. They can start investing their savings or even the money they receive as gifts from parents, grandparents and relatives on festivals and birthdays. An added advantage of this is that they will gain familiarity with the banking system (as they will have to open their bank accounts to be able to invest) and with time they can develop the skill of managing and monitoring their own funds. Parents can also push them by laying down goals for their daughters which will keep them motivated to invest whatever they save.

5) As they inch towards adulthood, parents can nudge daughters towards mutual fund investments. They can open a mutual fund account in her name and have her invest a tiny part of her monthly allowance in the form of an SIP. All of them can track the performance of the fund and parents can help daughters understand basic market dynamics on the basis of how the fund operates and behaves over a period of time. This will show them how wealth grows, make them understand the relationship between risk and return and also introduce them to financial terminologies.

Growing up is all about making tough decisions including financial ones. At the end of the day it is a life skill and it is a misconception that knowledge on finance should only be reserved for young boys and men. You would rarely hear young girls being taught about the nuances of taxation even though nobody - irrespective of their gender - can escape paying taxes. It is thus necessary that our daughters manage their own money when they grow up and till they do money management has to be a part of their syllabus.