PAKISTAN WOMEN
Confident
Planners
effective, conscientious, investment-minded
17% of adult female population | 16.2 million women
Relatively well educated, affluent, and married, Confident Planners are effective household managers who plan their finances carefully despite limited control within the household
and a tendency towards spending impulsively. They are financially healthy, struggling with relatively few bills and emergencies. They manage money through family, mostly eschewing formal accounts, which most find complex, and informal groups, which most distrust.
They save frequently but less commonly in a disciplined and goal-based manner. Most feel they do not earn enough to save, though do so anyways, and believe what they do manage to put away is vulnerable to the claims of others. They have strong sense of agency and belief in their abilities, but low self-esteem, perhaps due to their struggles exerting control within the household and building towards their long-term goals.
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
INCOME
self-employed
N/A
N/A
formally employed
N/A
N/A
EDUCATION
primary education
45%
20%
secondary education
23%
22%
PHONE
own smartphone
14%
15%
feature phone
61%
38%
LAND
own land
15%
30%
have access to land
41%
N/A
GENDER (FEMALE)
100%
51%
AGE (25-44)
78%
64%
GEOGRAPHY (RURAL)
61%
59%
SOCIOECONOMIC
73%
SES 3-5
FORMAL ACCOUNT
OWNERSHIP
8%
8%
INFORMAL
FINANCIAL USAGE
17%
16%
MOBILE WALLET
OWNERSHIP
1%
1%
TECH USE
(LOWEST FREQUENCY)
75%
75%
ANALYSIS
CONTEXT
Who are they?
HOUSEHOLD FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Basic Demographics
Confident Planners are mostly middle to high-income, rural, married women. They are well-educated, but report rarely taking part in household financial decisions, for which they defer to their spouse or someone else in the home.
They are slightly younger than average for Pakistan, skewing towards middle age.
Social Financial Network
Compared to other women in Pakistan, Confident Planners have relatively narrow social networks that are likely confined to family. They have relied heavily on these small networks for financial support in emergencies, yet like Pakistani women in general, most are not confident in the ability to raise emergency funds in the future.
RESILIENCE
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
ASPIRATIONS
What do they want?
Confident Planners would keep the majority of a windfall as cash at rates well above the national average, reflecting their prioritization of daily household expenses and bills. In fact, they report the lowest number of missed bills and the highest levels of confidence in meeting their expenses among Pakistani women. They are dedicated household managers who plan to insure daily household needs are met and bills are covered. They likely also advocate for investments in children’s education, weddings, and other cultural milestones.
BEHAVIOR
How do they manage their finances?
Financial Behavior Overview
Confident Planners enjoy near the highest level of financial health among Pakistani women segments, exhibiting strong financial behaviors across all metrics except for shaping income.
FINANCIAL BEHAVIOR INDEX
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
FINANCIAL ACCESS
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Financial Access
Most Confident Planners primarily manage finances through family. Though they report average rates of bank account ownership, mobile wallet ownership, and informal group membership, their usage rates across each channel is low. Most find financial services complex, which in addition to access barriers may suppress rates of formal account ownership and informal group membership.
Financial Priorities
Confident Planners would keep the majority of a windfall as cash at rates well above the national average, reflecting their prioritization of daily household expenses and bills. In fact, they report the lowest number of missed bills and the highest levels of confidence in meeting their expenses among Pakistani women. They are dedicated household managers who plan to insure daily household needs are met and bills are covered. They likely also advocate for investments in children’s education, weddings, and other cultural milestones.
HOW THEY PRIORITIZE A WINDFALL
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
HAS A PLAN TO MANAGE EXPENSES
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Shaping Income and Expenses
Despite high income volatility, Confident Planners report little trouble meeting expenses and they are confident in their ability to pay household expenses. This suggests they effectively manage liquidity in the face of volatility to meet daily household needs and pay short-term bills, perhaps owing to their strong planning and reserve building behavior, as well as efficacy at cultivating receivables.
Building Reserves
Among women, Confident Planners are the most effective segment at building reserves and are the most frequent savers across the largest number of channels. Most save monthly or more, primarily through family. They also report the highest overall land and livestock ownership.
SAVINGS CHANNELS USED
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
CONFIDENCE IN ABILITY TO RAISE EMERGENCY FUNDS
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Cultivating Receivables
Confident Planners cultivate receivables more effectively than any other women segment. About half borrow and over one-third borrow frequently (monthly or more). However, nearly three-quarters have relied on friends and family for support in emergencies over the past two years, more than any other segment, and over two-thirds are not confident in their ability to raise emergency funds in the future. They likely rely on close family for emergency support, leading to lower confidence as financial emergencies tend to affect entire households. Yet, perhaps because of their strong planning, effective income and expense management, and healthy reserves, they face the fewest financial emergencies of any segment.
Financial Planning
Confident Planners are conscientious and effective financial planners, with most reporting they have a plan to manage expenses despite saying that they do not make financial decisions within their households. They may plan as a way of mitigating their impulsiveness (see self-perception and financial attitudes in psychometrics) or to fulfill their role as household managers. Most however are not strongly deliberate savers, perhaps driven in part by their lack of decision making authority in the household, as well as their feeling that they don’t earn enough to save and that their savings are vulnerable to the claims of others.
HAS A PLAN TO MANAGE EXPENSES
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
PHONE USAGE
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Technology Use
Confident Planners use technology at an average rate among Pakistani women, but they are the second most frequent owners and users of mobile phones and the most frequent TV watchers.
PSYCHOLOGY
How do they think?
Self-perception
Most Confident Planners report a moderate to high sense of agency, but low self-esteem and they split evenly on their expectations for the future. Because Confident Planners are relatively well-off at the household level, their low self-esteem and mixed expectations for the future may reflect a dissatisfaction with their personal achievement or status. After all, they report the lowest level of participation in household decisions despite being strong and active financial planners.
SELF-EFFICACY
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
SPENDING IMPULSIVITY
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Financial Attitudes
Conscientiousness, Impulsiveness & Openness
Most Confident Planners are conscientious and effective financial planners, yet over two thirds consider themselves highly impulsive spenders. This suggests they plan to mitigate their impulsivity, but feel they could do a better job, a view reinforced by their strong sense of agency and low-self esteem.
Financial Attitudes
Debt
Most Confident Planners are uncomfortable holding debt, fearing reputational harm and loss of collateral, and do not consider themselves dependable. These characteristics, together with their low rates of bank account ownership and strong belief that financial services are complex, may explain why they so infrequently borrow from banks and informal groups relative to their account ownership and group membership rates. Instead, they prefer to borrow from family, which can be more flexible and carries lower reputational risk.
COMFORT WITH DEBT
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Financial Attitudes
Savings
About half of Confident Planners definitively are not deliberate, goal-oriented savers, though slightly less than half are moderately so. Nearly two-thirds feel they do not earn enough to save and identify as impulsive spenders, while roughly half feel their savings are not safe from the claims of others. These factors may help explain why few are strongly deliberate savers. Moreover, given their lowest rates of participation in household financial decision making, despite have a strong sense of agency and planning orientation, many in the segment may feel that setting and maintaining strong savings goals is somewhat beyond their control. It may be that many, especially those measuring moderately deliberate savers, would like to save more deliberately, but are unable to.
SAVINGS DELIBERATENESS
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Trust in People
Most Confident Planners have low to the lowest trust in people overall and belief in the equality of their community. In fact, they measure lowest amongst Pakistani women on these metrics.
Most also have low to the lowest trust in their social financial networks. Yet, they have relied more heavily on social sources of support in emergencies than any other segment and have the second highest confidence in their community to support investments in their business and education. Moreover, they save and borrow from family at the highest rates in Pakistan, and have average rates of informal group membership, reflecting their narrow trust (three-quarters report trusting people with whom they have had long-standing relationships more easily those they know less well).
TRUST IN PEOPLE
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
TRUST IN BANKS
Confident Planners
Pakistan Average
Trust in Institutions
Driven, in part, by their feelings that financial services are complex and by their paltry respect for authority figures, Confident Planners report relatively low trust in banks, and the lowest trust in media and government among women in Pakistan.
Gender Attitudes
Most Confident Planners believe that men are better financial managers than women, though they feel very strongly that wives and husbands should know each others financial affairs, and that girls and boys should be educated about money in the same way. This suggests that they may hope to see a change in the status quo for women, and may want a deeper view into household finances. Moreover they feel that women learn new technologies faster than men. Perhaps reflecting their lack of exposure, they do not believe that formal financial providers exhibit bias against women when issuing loans.
WOMEN UNDERSTAND NEW
TECHNOLOGIES BETTER THAN MAN
