Women's participation in a family's personal finance

A friend of mine does most of the personal finance planning for his family. His wife is well educated and an intelligent person. Sharper than my friend, if I may offer. For some reason, she does not participate in the expense tracking exercise that my friend diligently does every week / fortnight. My friend frequently wonders if his partner can manage this alone, if she were pushed into such a situation. In his absence, will she be able to navigate the financial maze? In a manner that maximizes benefit for the family? For the minor kids?

My mind goes back to the Tamil movie Aarilirundhu Arubathu Varai (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarilirunthu_Arubathu_Varai) – 1979 Tamil language drama film starring Superstar Rajinikanth. He plays the role of Santhanam – an aam aadmi who is trying his best to manage a large family off his meagre income.

(Spoiler alert!) There is a sequence in the movie in which Santhanam’s wife suggests that the hero subscribes to an insurance policy. The hero reacts angrily – he crudely asks whether the wife wants to profit from his death. The wife drops the topic and does not bring up the topic again. 

As luck would have it, the wife meets a tragic end due to a fire accident. A week after the accident, an insurance agent approaches Rajinikanth and gives him the death benefit proceeds of Rs.10,000/-. The wife – on her own accord – had gone ahead and taken an insurance policy on her name. Rajinikanth is taken aback. He sets up a magazine using the funds (remember 10K was a huge amount in 1979!) and grows from strength to strength in his literary career.

After writing the above paragraph, I realized that this is starting off on a very depressing note 😉. Did not mean it to turn out this way!

The larger point is that the financial literacy of a woman raises the financial well being of the family. We will soon be stepping into the 2nd half of 2026. A good time to take stock of where your life is headed. Dear Women, ask yourself a few questions:

Do you know the extent of your family’s outstanding debts as at 31-May-2026? (take any date – does not matter)

Do you know the liabilities that you / your family owes to informal funding sources such as friends and family?

Do you know the value of your assets? Fixed deposits? Mutual funds? Stocks? Real estate?

Do you know the nominees of all the savings accounts, fixed deposits, recurring deposits, brokerage accounts, mutual fund accounts, life insurance policies, NPS accounts, health insurance policies and so on? 

If you want to liquify / sell any of the items mentioned above, where would you start?

Do you know an estimate for large, planned fund outflows to be expected over the next 5 years?

If the answer is a “Mmm … No” to more than 2 or more of the above questions, then it is time for a chat with your spouse.

Remember, there is some flexibility in marriage dates. Not so much in college tuition fee dates! If you have a 12-year-old kid, you do know that she / he will need to start college 5 years from now. Are you prepared?