Piggy bank to SIP app dashboard: Indian women rewrite the rules of saving money

After receiving her salary alert, 32-year-old senior banker Sanaa Massey toggles between her IndMoney app and YouTube. One tab shows her systematic investment plan (SIP) tracker, in its third year, compounding at an annualised 12%. The other features a finfluencer explaining the basics of equity investing.

Five years ago, Massey would have let surplus funds sit in a bank account. “Now,” she shrugs, “I started investing in IPOs, stocks and SIPs. I want my money to work as hard as I do.”

Massey is part of a rapidly growing wave of women who are moving beyond passive savings and entering the world of active investing with stocks, SIPs, gold bonds, and even property. It’s a shift that’s been decades in the making, but is now accelerating, reshaping India’s investment landscape.

India’s economy and society are undergoing deep structural changes, and women are at the centre of this transformation. Female labour force participation has jumped from 23.3% in 2017-18 to 41.7% in 2023-24, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey.

They are outperforming

In capital markets, women are not just participating, they’re outperforming in discipline. As of December 2024, women accounted for one in every four mutual fund investors, controlling about Rs 33 in every Rs 100 of individual AUM (assets under management), according to Crisil Intelligence.

Their average folio size grew 24% between March 2019 and March 2024, compared to 6% for men. Equity’s share in women’s portfolios surged from 43.3% to 63.7%, and passive gold schemes jumped from 5.2% to 24.9% in the same period.

Women’s SIP portfolios tell an even stronger story. Their SIP AUM grew by an extraordinary 319.3% in five years, and women now account for nearly a third of all SIP assets. Their SIP ticket sizes are, on an average, 22% higher than men’s, and their lump-sum investments 45% larger.

Most importantly, women tend to stick with their investments when markets turn volatile. “Men are 1.5 times more likely to stop SIPs during downturns. Women hold steady,” says Aditi Sholapurkar, co-founder of SALT, a women-focused fintech company. “They’re patient investors who aren’t spooked by daily market noise.”

The data confirms this. The share of women investors with a holding period beyond five years has risen from 8.8% to 21.3%. Geographically, T30 (top 30 geographical locations) cities still account for 74.8% of women investors’ AUM, but the share from B30 (beyond top 30) cities has risen from 20.1% to 25.2%. In smaller cities, women under 35 account for 15.1% of AUM, compared to 9.4% in T30 cities, proof that younger women in non-metro India are driving new growth.

Then there is Ishita Gupta (name changed), in her early 50s, whose financial arc runs in reverse to the younger women, from extreme caution to calculated risk. For decades, she stuck to Public Provident Fund (PPF) accounts, fixed deposits, and provident fund contributions.

“I wanted certainty,” she says. But now, with a substantial cushion of safe savings, she has ventured into high-risk equities. “Because my basic needs are covered, I feel free to play with investing,” she says. For her, risk is not recklessness but a luxury earned, and proof that financial agency can be exercised at any age.

Being app-happy

For 28-year-old financial crimes analyst Mitali Handa, investing was almost a family tradition. “My father was my guiding light,” she recalls. “At home, saving and investing were always openly discussed. I still remember him showing me how a Rs 5,000 SIP could grow over a decade. That made it real.”

Starting in her early 20s, Handa committed 10% of her income to investments. Today, she diversifies across stocks, SIPs, and government gold bonds, using Groww for investments and Zerodha for trading. “SIPs are for the long term; I use stock profits for personal aspirations, and gold bonds for the longer horizon,” she explains.

Her journey reflects what Dr Kappal calls “financial socialisation”. She describes one interviewee who instinctively defaulted to fixed deposits, just like her mother did, despite knowing about mutual funds. “Daily conversations at home shape how we perceive money and risk,” says Kappal, adding: “If a child grows up hearing about stocks at the dinner table, equity comes naturally later in life. If not, the inertia towards safer instruments is much stronger.”

For much of the 20th century, women’s financial engagement in India was defined by prudence. The default assets, fixed deposits, recurring deposits, gold jewellery provided safety but rarely beat inflation. Equity risk-taking, active portfolio management and property investment at scale were often considered male domains. Sholapurkar points to the compressed timeline of female participation in formal finance. “Men have been part of the formal money economy for about 120 years, women for roughly 50,” she says, adding: “We joined late, so for decades the instinct was protection, not growth. Security meant keeping money safe, not making it work harder.”

That mindset is evolving. Millennials and Gen Z face what Sholapurkar calls the “mid-life squeeze”, rising living costs, volatile career paths, and higher aspirations. “Being financially prudent is still the core,” she explains, “but the definition of security has expanded. Now, security is beating inflation, building assets and ensuring you have options.” The pandemic gave this shift an unexpected push. Lockdowns shuttered bank branches, slowed cash transactions and disrupted informal credit networks. Women in service sectors, which saw heavy job losses, experienced first-hand the fragility of depending solely on savings. Smartphones became portable bank branches; digital KYC replaced paper files; SIPs could be set up in minutes.

Fintech platforms, from Groww to LXME, played a pivotal role. They bridged the “confidence gap” with goal-based tools, peer communities, and simplified language. Influencers like CA Rachana Ranade reframed finance into relatable lessons, drawing millions of female followers. “Finance isn’t rocket science,” says Sholapurkar. “Once women get the vocabulary, they approach it like a travel itinerary or recipe, step by step, with a plan.”

Stability, status, strategy

If equities and mutual funds represent the frontier, property remains the anchor asset. Real estate is not just a financial instrument, it also carries social weight as a marker of independence and stability.

Prashant Thakur, executive director and head, research & advisory, ANAROCK Group, has tracked a clear increase in women buying property independently. “While women have always been key decision-makers in home purchases, they are now increasingly making independent acquisitions,” he says.

The end-use-to-investment ratio for women homebuyers stood at 69:31 in ANAROCK’s H2 2024 consumer sentiment survey, compared with 79:21 two years earlier. Real estate has steadily overtaken other asset classes in preference—70% of women respondents named it as their top investment choice, up from 65% in 2022 and57% pre-pandemic.

Budgets have also shifted upward. Over half of female buyers (52%) preferred premium or luxury homes priced above Rs 90 lakh, compared with 47% in 2022. Within that, 33% aimed for properties between Rs 90 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore, 11% for Rs 1.5 to Rs 2.5 crore, and 8% for more than Rs 2.5 crore.

Demand for under-construction homes is rising too as 18% now prefer them, versus 10% two years ago, while the share opting for ready-to-move-in homes has fallen from 48 to 29%. Thakur attributes this to confidence in large, listed developers and an eye on future capital gains.

According to Thakur, policy incentives play a major role. Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana offer women buyers a 1-2 percentage point reduction in stamp duty, with some concessions varying by urban-rural classification. Uttar Pradesh’s Noida saw 73,000 of 180,000 property registrations in FY2024-25 in women’s names. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana mandates registration in a woman’s name for beneficiaries.

For single mothers and unmarried professionals, ownership is both a financial and personal milestone. “Buying property is a visible declaration of independence,” he says.

Newer instruments such as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), with entry points as low as Rs 10,000, are expanding access to commercial property, blending rental yields with capital gains without the headaches of direct management. Thakur expects developers to respond with women-centric residential communities focused on safety, convenience and lifestyle amenities, while financial institutions introduce tailored lending products recognising women as reliable borrowers.

Behavioural edge

What explains women’s outperformance? Behavioural finance provides answers. Women display less overconfidence bias than men, according to Kappal. They realistically assess risks, carefully weigh downsides, and are detail-oriented. They also exhibit stronger loss aversion, the pain of a loss outweighs the joy of a gain. “This makes them more cautious,” Kappal notes, “but also more disciplined. They tend not to churn portfolios impulsively.”

Importantly, women are more open to professional advice and values-based investing. “They align money with meaning,” she says.

But these gains must extend beyond urban professionals. That’s where government-backed initiatives like Niveshak Didi come in.

Launched by the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA), the programme takes financial literacy to rural communities, with a special focus on women. In its Phase II, launched in Hyderabad on September 1 this year, sessions were conducted in local languages like Telugu to make concepts relatable. “Equipping women and households with financial knowledge is critical,” said Anita Shah Akella, IEPFA CEO, at the launch. “Niveshak Didi bridges knowledge gaps and builds confidence,” she added. The initiative uses interactive training, grassroots partnerships, and fraud-prevention modules ensuring that rural women not only open accounts but also feel secure enough to use them for savings, investments, and digital transactions.

Waking up to this opportunity are private players as well. Nithin Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, recalls: “In 2014-15, only 2-3% of our customers were women. Today, it’s around 30%.” A survey, conducted by Zerodha, revealed half of women managed accounts themselves, while the other half depended on husbands, brothers, or children. “That half managing independently is a good start, but we need much more,” Kamath wrote on LinkedIn. Zerodha is supporting communities like inherinterest.club, running financial literacy workshops with Svatah for rural women, and backing initiatives like Ladies Who Lead.

Generational tide

From piggy banks to SIP apps, from fixed deposits to Rs 2.5-crore homes, Indian women are rewriting the rules of money. Millennials and Gen Z are building “freedom funds” to enable career breaks or ventures. Middle-aged women are transitioning from security to strategy. Rural women are slowly stepping into digital finance, supported by targeted literacy programmes. “We’ve moved from saving for a rainy day to investing for every day,” says Sholapurkar.

This shift is altering household dynamics too. Women with capital are taking the lead in financial planning, often with better risk-adjusted returns than their male peers. “India’s financial landscape is witnessing a positive shift with more women participating in financial products,” says Piyush Gupta, director, Crisil Intelligence. “But with women making up nearly half the population, there’s still huge headroom for growth.”

The challenge ahead lies in deepening this tide, through multilingual education, lifecycle-based products, and policies that reward women’s asset ownership.

As Kappal puts it: “The most important part is to overcome inertia and start. Define goals, build confidence, and stay disciplined. Once women take charge, their portfolios and lives transform.”

The journey from piggy bank to app dashboard isn’t just a financial story. It’s a story of independence, resilience, and rewriting the future.