Discover & Learn

RBC vous souhaite, à vous et à vos proches, un joyeux long week-end en toute sécurité.

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy and safe long weekend from RBC!

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy Mother's Day from RBC!

RBC vous souhaite, ainsi qu’à vos proches, une excellente fête des Mères !

It was a power packed event at a local net working event for women, where I presented a speech on Women and Investing. To be a woman, you need to be resilient, resolute and resourceful. From raising kids to caregiving parents, running the household to being the number one at your workplace, women can and do handle it all. As of 2021, women represented 57% of professional occupation in business and finance. This is 10% higher than the same in 1997. 54% of women today are primary earners. As of 2023, labor force participation hit a record high of 86% and it added $9 billion in additional household wage income. Yet, only 60% of women invest in stock market. Even though women now, are going to outlive their male counterparts by 4 to 8 years in an average, women still now tend to save only 2/3rd of what men would save for retirement. While men have more cognitive biases about investing, women tend to have more emotional biases. To name a few, are Status Quo Biases, Endowment Biases and Regret Aversion Biases. All these lead to individuals making seemingly non rational decisions to stay with sub optimal situation. In my entire Banking career and specially as a Financial Planner, I have always seen women have these core strength that our male counterparts lack: Women tend to be more risk aware when they invest; Studies show women are patient investors and Finally women are more likely than men to diversify their investments. These lead to a key success in investment for anyone: The more likely you stay the course and keep a long term mindset, the better you ride out market volatility and make a better outcome. Remember, self care is our fundamental right as women. Saving for our future is part of that self care. Women are the glowsticks in darkness. But there will always be something or other to stop us from saving. May be some one started a maternity leave from a high paying job or some one had to take a long time leave to take care of an elderly parent or may be, you just became single after a twenty year relationship where you never had to worry about future savings. My Advice is "NEVER STOP SAVING". It does not have to be a huge amount. Even putting away $25 per month can help one save $300. If saved biweekly, it more than doubles in a year. Now imagine if you keep on doing that for thirty years. I always urge every one to have a plan. Have a short term plan, mid term plan and then a long term plan. Planning is the key to financial success. Your retirement plan is always YOUR retirement plan. It is always different than any one else's. I felt all the love and appreciation come my way when every one opened their little goodie bags I brought. I put in a little glowstick for every one in the room. Women are the glowsticks in dark!

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Chag Pesach Sameach. Wishing you a joyous Passover from RBC.

In the recent weeks, my mother had a health scare. She raised some strong girls who are now living in four corners of the world. One of my two sisters is an esteemed professor of Law, while the other one is a world known journalist, working in the largest media house in India, That all of us sisters were worried about her is an understatement. Every one who has an elderly parent, will understand what we went through. Our mother has never been sick let alone be in an Intensive Care Unit. With the abundance of blessings showered upon her, Ma made it back to her own home in no time. My mother is still the rock behind all our success and a soft cushion with those extra ordinary strength to push us back when we are down and whenever we felt like giving up. This was the one time, when we could not turn to mother to ask for guidance. It turned out, it was our late father who took care of it all. With Baba's planning, Ma got all the necessary care before, during and ongoing care after she was released from the hospital. Yes Dad, you are the strongest Rock of the Rock. This is why Estate planning at every stage of life is important. Baba made sure, even if he is gone, his wife and children are taken care of, exactly the way he would take care when he was with us. Estate planning is just not about distributing your wealth to the ones you left behind. It is about how to take care of your loved one on an ongoing basis too. And yes, how ever prepared you are, how ever accomplished you have been, it is never easy to face a situation like this. I am ever so grateful to have such strong parents who led us to succeed in which ever field their daughters chose and helped us flourish with their presence always and ever after.