Book Excerpt: 'How Women Invest In A Man's World' By Jyoti Mehndiratta Kappal

Women today are career-oriented and active contributors to the economy. But when it comes to big financial choices, like buying a home or investing savings, the decision-making power remains in men's hands.
Jyoti Kappal, a behavioural finance professional, uncovers the complex emotional and psychological factors that shape women’s financial behaviour in her book, How Women Invest In A Man's World. It is both a wake-up call and a practical guide, offering insight into how women can take control, build wealth and shape a financially secure future on their own terms.

Drawing on her two decades in the BFSI sector, years of research, and candid interviews, Kappal examines inherent biases, such as parental influence, mental accounting and a tendency toward risk aversion, and how they can hinder confident investing. She also breaks down the various types of women investors, identifying the unique strengths and strategies they bring to the table. Here is an excerpt from the book.

Excerpt from How Women Invest in a Man's World by Jyoti Kappal

Chapter 4: Parental Influence: The Invisible Hand

In the context of economic success, parental influence on women’s investment journeys acts as a silent architect shaping attitudes and decisions. This is a deep dynamic that is built more around kitchen tables rather than in business school hallways or boardrooms. In subsequent pages, we explore the subtle but profound influence that parents have on their daughters’ investment habits, revealing a web of beliefs and behaviours created not through explicit advice but by implicit values conveyed through everyday behaviour and family relationships.

Despite the shocking lack of face-to-face financial discussions that is common in our culture, parental influence on the behaviour of children remains undeniable. Ostensibly, all of us feel that we take decisions after analysing and understanding our options. But interestingly, if you were to engage in a deeper conversation with yourself you might find that you are following in your parent’s footsteps.

Yashi, a content developer by profession, does freelance work and is making a mark in the industry. After graduating from a premier college in Chennai, she worked in an organisation for a few years. That is where she picked up an interest in content development. Yashi has an eye for detail and is good at building narratives. She started off small, with a personal page where she uploaded random content, and gradually, she fell in love with the work. As she honed her skills and mastered the craft, people around her started noticing her work. That is when she also got offered some freelance work when a few of her friends engaged her to develop content for their ventures. Slowly, the word spread and she started getting offers to do content for startups which were mushrooming all around her. This was also the time when she entered a new phase of her life. She had just married her partner and wanted to have more time for herself. She left her job and started doing content development full-time. Yashi has been on this journey for close to fifteen years now, and she is doing well.

I was doing the research for my book when a common friend connected us. On a warm winter afternoon, we met at a tiny little cafe over a cup of filter coffee. After the normal pleasantries, we started talking about her money habits. During the chat, she said that whenever she had surplus money, she always made a fixed deposit as it was easy and safe. The conversation slowly went to her childhood and the dinner table conversations about money. As in every typical Indian household, the children were not involved or consulted on money matters. We were talking about her mother and how she had invested, when suddenly Yashi jumped and said, ‘OMG! My mother always put her money in fixed deposits and fixed deposit only. She would always say I have saved this money, and I will go and do an FD. I am doing the same. Not that I do not know about mutual funds, but whenever there is ₹50,000 in my account, I transfer it to FD. Now that we are talking about it, I realise that I am doing exactly what my mother did.’ Some more digging revealed that in many other aspects too, Yashi was subconsciously following what she had seen her parents do.

Whether it was the simple act of ensuring that the gas in the car was replenished when there was one line left on the gas tank (her father’s habit) or when it came to something more complicated, like investments. And if we reflect deeply we are likely to realise that many of our habits in our adult lives are rooted in the home we grew up in. This ‘learning by osmosis’ phenomenon illustrates the lasting effects of parental role-modelling. Responsible saving habits cultivated from childhood are the foundation of future financial acumen. Through their quiet actions, parents unintentionally model and instil values and behaviours that resonate for years. Parental guidance is empowering, but the influence of external social experiences poses unexpected challenges. Negative stories from friends, family and the community can instil fear in women and deter them from participating in the stock market.

Jhanvi, who is a student and someone I share a close bond with, is pursuing her MBA from a premier institute and is specialising in finance. She stands at the crossroads of a financial mystery. In what follows, I will go into what she shared about her understanding of investments. Jhanvi’s father did keen and cautious retirement planning while her mother engaged in risky stock market activities. Talk about money in the house were always dominated by just two strong edicts: ‘Save more’ and ‘Be careful’. Jhanvi realised that she needed more than such vague advice to navigate the rough waters of personal investments. One afternoon, while Jhanvi was cleaning an old cupboard, she found a faded scrapbook. It was full of newspaper cuttings, and with every turn of the page, there were notes on the crashing stock market. She was very sure it was her mother’s, and Jhanvi rushed to her mother to share her discovery. But to her surprise, her mother did not recognise the scrapbook. That is when her father walked in and picked up the old book. There was a smile on his face. And he started talking about the days when he had actively invested in the stock market. He spoke stoically and carefully about his early failures, some gains and about how he then moved away from active trading. He spoke about value investing and the fact that his current portfolio was a bouquet of carefully selected stocks meant for long-term investments.

Jhanvi’s mother, an eternal optimist, also remembered her bold stock picks and gave her simple but effective advice. ‘Learn from my mistakes and enjoy the thrill of the hunt,’ she said. Jhanvi was happy to have this in-depth discussion with her parents and preferred it to hearing just ‘Be careful and save more.’ This was solid advice which laid the foundation for her investment journey. Armed with new insights from her parents and a personal plan, Jhanvi charted her own investment course. She adopted a hybrid approach, combining her father’s caution with her mother’s calculated risk-taking. Today she plays with stocks and, at the same time, ensures that she is saving enough through suitable instruments to meet her future expenses.

Extracted with permission from Jyoti Mehndiratta Kappal's How Women Invest in a Man's World; published by Bloomsbury India.