inancial planning among the parents in Kerala A study with special reference to Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana Scheme

Abstract

Financial Planning is an important practice of every individual to forecast the financial plans for effective management of finance for the future. Financial Planning usually includes tax planning, retirement planning, insurance planning, investment planning, education funding planning and other household planning. Family planning consists of defining the family’s short-term and long-term goals and making a plan to achieve them effectively. It helps to manage expected as well as unexpected expenses and keeping the future of family safe and secure. Planning for the bright future of daughters is the most important thing of every parents. For meeting their education, marriage and other financial expenses, proper planning a prudent investment are essential. For that purpose, the Government of India launched a scheme for the girl children as a part of the campaign of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ which came into force with effect from 2014 December 2nd. Providing financial security for the education and overall future of girl children is the core objective of Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana scheme which can be opened from post offices and banks. The study is about the financial planning among parents in Kerala for the successful future of their daughters using the small saving scheme named Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana scheme. The research work is descriptive as well as analytical in nature. The primary data were collected using well-structured questionnaire from the registered subscribers of Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana account from the post offices of Trivandrum region, Kochi region and Kozhikode region and banks; both public sector and private sector. A combination of different sampling methods was used to select the sample. 591 SSY subscribers were selected as samples. The study found that the level of awareness and perception are high but the satisfaction level is under comparatively low while checking through family profile and investment profile. Some mediating variables are evaluated to check whether they are influenced the satisfaction level. Investment Decision making is the variable which affect the perception of parents which leads to improve their satisfaction level towards SSY scheme. There are some challenges or problems faced by the parents while investing the money in SSY account which hinder the increase in the level of satisfaction from perception level.