Why More Women Need to Invest

So, I’m a dude, and I do sometimes kinda feel like investing can be a bit of a boys’ club. In groups I go to, or people I talk to it seems there can be more dudes than dudettes! I do understand we are striving for progress towards gender equality, there can still be a huge imbalance when it comes to who’s building their wealth in the stock market. But I’ve recently learned that when women do invest, they often do better than men!

Here are some shocking statistics that show the gender investment gap:

In a recent survey of 16-to-25-year-olds it was found that young men are twice as likely as young women to have investment accounts. Just wow!

When coming into any extra money, men were also twice as likely to choose investing over other types of spending.

This difference between men and women is huge! It really is about women missing out on building wealth. And ya know what? Women make better investors when they do choose to invest and build wealth!

Now, I didn’t really start investing until my 30s, and would totally get the hesitation. Trying to understand investing or having money discussions felt intimidating, exclusive for those “rich people”, and often a bit boring because I didn’t know what i didn’t know! But I’ve since learned that investing isn’t about becoming some crazy wizard of Wall Street. Investing is really about securing your future, one little decision at a time.

Now, let’s talk about why more women aren’t investing. Here are a few reasons I’ve found:

Confidence gap: Like many people, women feel they don’t know enough to start investing. This means they typically stick with what feels safe. Usually things like savings accounts.

Risk perception: Studies have shown that women tend to be a bit more risk-aware (not risk-averse!) than men. Think of this as women are more cautious about financial and money decisions.

Limited exposure: As Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, a leading advocate for financial literacy, points out, “In order to close this economic gender gap and get women to stop keeping so much money in cash, we don’t just need education. We need to give them exposure to investing.”

I remember when I first started investing — taking the first step to contribute to a target date fund. That small action helped me overcome my hesitation and continue to learn more. At least I started!

The Female Advantage: Why Women Make Better Investors

Here’s where things get awesome. Despite being underrepresented in investing, women often outperform men when they do invest. This isn’t just a story—research backs it up. Not only investing, but business in general. Did you know that women lead organizations are 18 to 69 percent more profitable than other businesses in their respected industries!

Continue reading at Heavy Metal Money!

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