Abstract
Financial planning is an important aspect in ensuring prosperity in the economy; however, working women in India are still dealing with various barriers when trying to do their financial planning. This research aims at examining the behavior, awareness, and practices related to financial planning by the working women in India in the Education and Corporate professions. It seeks to find out if there are any significant differences in the financial planning behavior and practices of working women depending on their profession. In this research, a structured 25 statement questionnaire using a Likert Scale measuring seven variables – Budgeting & Awareness, Financial Independence, Knowledge & Preparedness, Investment & Planning, Confidence & Goals, Insurance & Emergency Funds, and Investment Instruments - was used to collect data from 110 working women (60 respondents from the Education profession and 50 respondents from the corporate profession). This study used one-way ANOVA to test for mean differences among different occupational groups. Statistical results showed F(1,108) = 11.389, p = 0.001, indicating a significant difference in financial management scores between women working in the corporate sector and those in the education field. All seven sub-dimensions recorded p < 0.05, and women from corporate backgrounds scored higher on every single dimension. Follow-up analysis will be elaborated in subsequent sections. From the analysis, it is evident that women profession is an important variable affecting their financial planning behavior. It espouses to start financial literacy initiative for the education sector, to invest through institutions and to draft policies for financial empowerment of women.