If you put a group of men on a golf course, they will usually talk about money. But women at a coffee or lunch won’t talk about money.
Indeed, it’s a sad but shocking truth that studies have shown 61% of women would prefer to speak about their own death in explicit detail than talk about money.
Eight out of ten women don’t want to go and see a financial planner, yet only 60% of women don’t want to go to the dentist.
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Felicity Cooper, Director of Cooper Wealth Management, told me these facts. It’s about the differences men and women have in their views about risk, investing and money.
Yet, as Really Simple Money’s SupaWomen campaign shows, investing for women isn’t a pastime – it’s a necessity. We take time out of careers and are often paid less than men – so investing and making our money grow is often the only way we can ensure that we get a decent retirement.
And the high divorce rate – IBISWorld forecasts the number of divorces to rise by 4.3% in 2021, to 52,117 thanks to the financial strains of covid – no-one can rely on a partner’s super for retirement. That’s why maximising your opportunities is so important.
But investing doesn’t have top be for high fliers earning huge salaries. For example, if you save $20 per week after 25 weeks you will have $500, which is the minimum parcel you can invest. If you do this every six months, save $20, and when you get to $500 you invest, when you get to retirement age you will have a million dollar share portfolio.
So really you can invest with as little as $20.
When I heard about Really Simple Money’s campaign to get Australian mums an extra $60,000 in their super I was keen to get involved. Superannuation is one of the most straight-forward ways anyone can invest. And, one of the risks facing all of us is not investing enough. The power of inflation eroding anyone’s financial freedom is a key risk to all, so finding an investment solution is critical.
At the Australian Shareholders Association, we speak for the new investor – many of whom are women investing at record levels today. The pandemic boosted global stimulus and accelerated digitalisation and stock market participation.
ASA’s women’s education platform wInvest proclaims: “Somewhere along the way, like 90% of women, you are going to be solely responsible for your money. Either it is at the beginning of life, before you have a partner or somewhere along the way we get divorced or separated or at the end because we live longer.”
Ms Cooper takes women through the free online resource highlighting how men and women approach making money in different ways.
Like fitness, there is never an end to investing, it is a mindset and a journey we need to be committed to daily. On the flip side, if we don’t consider our fitness or investing, at any point, the results of neglecting both areas can be devastating.
I’ve always lived my life with the motto, “Having a mindset of learning is the most important tool to equip you with the knowledge about how you can create and build wealth.”