Gold jewellery, perfumes, cosmetics and gadgets typically top the list of daughters and sons planning to delight their mothers on Mother’s Day. While useful, these gifts are unlikely to bring about a transformational change in her life.
Instead, why not surprise her with the mother of all gifts: financial security? Here are a few suggestions for the occasion that falls on May 14 this year:
Get a health cover
At an age when huge medical bills are likely to top your mother’s list of concerns, there can be no better gift than a health policy. Her health insurance requirement will depend on her age, current place of residence and health history. If she is a senior citizen, you can look at buying a cover as large as your budget permits. The premium will be linked to her age, state of health, sum assured and city where she lives, amongst other things. Remember, when you pay your parents’ health premium, you are entitled to an additional tax deduction of up to Rs 25,000 (Rs 30,000 if they are senior citizens), over and above the concession of up to Rs 25,000 on premium paid towards your own health cover.
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Start an SIP
Those in older age brackets are not very familiar with mutual funds, preferring to park their savings in safe, but less rewarding, bank fixed deposits or post office time deposits. As a result, they lose out on benefits like better return-generating ability, transparency, liquidity and tax-efficiency that mutual funds offer. Instead of gifting cash or valuables on Mother’s Day, you can introduce your mother to investing in mutual funds through the systematic investment plan (SIP) mode. You can transfer the amount you intended to gift her to her bank account, set up an SIP through aggregator or registrar portals and apps, and teach her to monitor her investments. If risk appetite is low, as it is likely to be for those in this age group, choose balanced funds or monthly income plans (MIP) rather than pure equity schemes.
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Set up a regular income stream
What better than ensuring a regular income flow for your mother? Put in a lump-sum in a fund and set up a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP). The amount can be withdrawn at regular intervals over a pre-decided tenure.
Gold with a Difference
If you are of the opinion that only the glitter of gold that make her genuinely happy, then look at alternatives to physical gold—sovereign gold bonds, gold ETFs, gold funds and even gold deposit schemes offered by various jewellery houses.
Your time, for her money
In our fast paced lives the least we can do is take out some time to spend with our mothers. This Mother’s Day take this a step forward by dedicating your time to her money matters—organise her finances, digitise her key documents, teach her to monitor her portfolio and share your advice on how best to deploy her savings or retirement corpus. You can also caution her against the pitfalls of investing in unregulated instruments recommended by neighbours or friends. You can introduce her to digital modes of payment, along with basic safety measures to be followed. Make her aware of the consequences of believing fraudulent messages on Whatsapp or email that fish for sensitive financial information with an aim to swindle money. Your time could turn out to be the best gift she ever received, in more ways than one.
