Why more women should invest

When we think about the financial world, many of us tend to quickly associate it with the male gender. While it is true that historically the financial industry has been a male-dominated one, things are starting to shake up a bit. In the past women were more afraid of taking the step towards investing their assets, however, slowly but surely more women are starting to feel empowered enough to take control over and grow their assets. Because why should gender matter when it comes to investing? The truth simply is: it should not.

Saving vs investing

The majority of women tend to be more conservative and consequently prefer keeping their money on a savings account, however, this has become a rather outdated option compared to investing. What we often don’t realize is that even though you might think you are receiving a small positive interest rate, if the inflation rate is higher you are actually losing money. For this reason, you should rather consider investing these savings.

Invest to decrease the gender asset gap

Whether it is to take care of the children or any other priority, women often find themselves at some point in their lives in a position where they have to work part-time or even completely give up their work. This has led to a big difference in personal assets between men and women. If on top of that, women do not invest their savings as most men do, this increases the already big difference in assets even more. That’s why it is so important for women to start investing too: to take control of their assets and make them grow further. Nowadays, there are many ways that allow you to invest without needing too much experience or taking too much risk while still receiving higher returns than through your savings account. So why not give it a try?

Women are great investors

Although women tend to be more reluctant to start investing than men, when they finally do feel ready, women have been proven to be great investors. Studies have shown that women spend more time researching their investment choice. They also are more likely to choose the appropriate level of risk than men as men often tend to be over-confident when it comes to their investments. In addition to that, women usually stay calmer throughout their long-term strategy, meaning when the market is doing less well they do not trade as frequently as men do, which can lead to men making poorer decisions. The combination of these factors has led to many female investors outperforming male investors.

Females invest with a bigger purpose

For those who agree that it is time for more women to take the reins and start investing, we want to share some popular investment practices women seem to gravitate towards. Because women tend to be more empathetic and like to add a sense of meaningfulness to their actions, they have shown a lot of interest in impact investing. In case this sounds unfamiliar to you, Impact or ESG investments are types of investments where not only financial factors are evaluated but also the long-run impact on the environment and society. These investments have become increasingly more popular over the past years, especially with the rise of environmental awareness amongst younger generations. A plus point is that the majority of ESG investments tend to outperform non-ESG investments. When digging a bit deeper into impact investing, a specific subset of impact investing that women are leaning towards is gender lens (GLI) investments. These are investments that take into account the benefits for women and gender equality. Depending on the GLI approach, these could be women-led companies or companies that provide services that benefit women in society. Overall, there seems to be a clear trend of women wanting to support other women, building the necessary blocks together to help each other reach the top. On a final note, I would like to tell you personally that if this blog spoke to you and you have not gathered the courage to start investing yet, you too are just as capable as anyone to start investing, you just need to be brave enough to take that first step.