Introduction
Politics. Defense. Sports, IT. Finance. Business. Law. Women now reign everywhere.
With the world transforming in leaps and bounds, it was about time everyone; especially women began recognizing the need for a prosperous life, fulfilling their short-term and long-term goals.
Thus, investing comes to be vital, and possessing the right investment skills, indispensable. For who controls the purse strings? Women.
Ever tried researching early-stage investors and found just men, men everywhere? We shouldn’t be astonished. Most women refrain from dipping toes here: those who do mostly bank on their fathers or husbands to go over their policies.
Crusading the common, outdated notion, some women out there are trailblazers.
“Bring more women to business. That is imperative. It’s true.” says Christine Lagarde (International Monetary Fund).
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2018, women made up 46.9% of the total US labor force in finance. This surge is better than them, accounting for only 19.4% of senior-level managers in the investment sector in 2016.
Why investment is for women (too!)
Women not investing yet are missing out on more than they know.
Investing is undeniably one of the best ways for a woman to accomplish her financial goals – ranging from a holiday, saving up for an emergency, a large expenditure (buying a house, marriage, etc.), sending her kids to school/college, saving for retirement, earning equal to if not more than men or just growing her overall wealth.
Women feel accomplishing a sense of financial parity and liberation as a necessity. They have got to concede that overseeing one’s own and the family’s finances is honestly not that puzzling. They can get the hang of it all with an ounce of courage, patience, effort, and an open mind.
You might have trouble accepting this, but women are usually more risk-conscious, willing to accept and research what they are unaware of. Unrushed and well-thought-out is their investment approach in a nutshell.
Why are the numbers disappointing?
“Our research showed that it is not that women make a conscious decision to not invest financially; instead it is something they simply haven’t considered. So nine out of ten women [have not considered investing],” says Anna Lane, CEO of The Wisdom Council to panelists from EY, HSBC Global Asset Management, and AberdeenStandard Investments, all of whom partnered on the research.
Other than opportunities to use investing to make money, women entrepreneurs are disregarding their inputs. It’s high time women start wielding and operating bank accounts, trading accounts, Demat accounts, and holding properties in their name.
Jenny Tooth, chief executive of the U.K. Business Angels Association, says: “A lack of female role models is consistently noted as one of the key barriers inhibiting women from investing.”
Many women lack necessary investment information, do not want to ask too many questions for fear of judgment, and are intimidated, having to continually battle against generalized comments like “women don’t invest, women find investing complex.”
Due to their long-term investment perspective, preferences to participate in safer and less volatile investments with consistent track records lead them to trade less frequently. Today, it’s essential that we change this old school of thought and understand women’s importance in finance.
Top Female investors
With women slowly colonizing the finance world, if you need role models to look up to, here are the best of the best – Asha Jadeja Motwani, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Bharati Jacob, Rekha Menon, and more!
According to a post in The Motley Fools, female investors earn better returns than men, according to some studies.
What can we do?
The road to empowering women to invest employs asserting surplus information, considerable access to openings, exposure to role models, and unearthing routes to make non-physical forms of investments more tangible for them to invest in actively.
Since a room of all-male investors deters female entrepreneurs, we ought to increase and encourage female investors to fund female entrepreneurs globally.
The investment sources need to be inclusive of women who will support them.
Warren Buffett admitted that he invests like a woman and this, propels us to have an equal balance of men and women talking money.
Saving and investing are two sides of the coin. Demonetization taught us many things, the most important one being -stuffing cash away under mattresses and cupboards is a dime a dozen, and with inflation, their value goes down.
Are you looking to be an investor?
If we ended up convincing you enough to be an investor, you should know that it isn’t a simple deal. Investing can go well and equally wrong. Besides being prepared to lose the money you invest, you must learn that the returns can be to god, too bad, or somewhere in between, and avoid some common financial mistakes. You might also want to check out alternate investing.
If you are a woman unsure of your investing aptitude or don’t earn enough money to invest, consider starting with a small investment plan.
Women now need to be fearless investors.
Happy Financial Freedom!
