Women have come a long way personally, professionally and financially, but when it comes to finances, there’s still considerable work to be done to level the playing field. This article celebrates the progress made, deeply examines the specific financial challenges women face across their lifetimes, and offers potential solutions and actions for funding the present and future.
A common misconception around investing is that you have to be an expert to succeed when the reality is that there are so many tools and resources that make easy to start investing with as little as your pocket change.
Why Should Every Woman Invest?
In most cases, future needs seem to require financial resources than our resources and the only way to bridge the gap is to put your savings to earn more; significantly more than the erosion that inflation may cause. While that’s the overarching objective, there are others:
1. Financial Empowerment
It’s important for women to be able to achieve a sense of financial equality and independence, investing is one of the best ways for women to ensure that they have the potential to accumulate wealth.
2. Fulfilling Financial Goals
Whatever may be your goal, house, marriage, education, vacation, investing is arguably the best way to reach those goals.
3. Saving for Retirement
Invested wisely, our savings can make a significant contribution to the retirement corpus of the family along with making meaningful contributions to wards any large ticket expenses
Why Is a Savings Account Alone Not Enough?
Cash that sits in a saving account is actually depreciating in value year-over-year because of inflation. That means you’re essentially losing money when you aren’t actively growing your savings.
It’s a no brainer, that a solid investments strategy can help you grow your savings exponentially over the course of 10, 20, and 30 years. Most women understand this but probably are hesitant because of associated risks, or lack of confidence of being able to manage the risk.
How to “Invest Like A Woman”
Despite the stereotypical belief that we aren’t good investors, women actually tend to possess quite a few qualities that give us an edge in the market.
Studies have also found that women are:
• More likely to be stable about their financial decisions, resulting in a stable and at times higher returns.
• Long-term planners, meaning we focus on our specific growth goals
• Women being more willing to seek out trusted financial advice from experts So, how do you leverage these qualities in your investment strategy?
Finalize the right strategy
It is necessary to spend enough time to think through future life journey, identify needs and aspirations and set up realistic financial goals. Also look at current and future earning potential, saving opportunities and needs.
Do Budget Allocation
Warren B says, don’t save what’s left after spending, instead spend what’s left after saving. This highlights the need to save over spending. Experts believe a 20% of your earning is a good benchmark for saving or investing.
Know the Basics of Investing
Even if you are well aware of basics of investing, its best to take an expert help in planning investments. Typical investment options available are:
Stocks Basically, when a company performs well, the stock tends to increase in value. Stocks tend to be more volatile investment, meaning they can give high return. These are considered high risk investments.
Bonds. Also known as fixed-income investments, bonds are one of the most popular assets for conservative portfolios. While they tend to be more stable than stocks or other volatile investments, they also have a lower return potential.
Money Market Accounts. These are low-return, yet stable investment assets.
Real Estate. Property has a tendency to rise in value over time.
Take the first step
So now is the time to make the first move, take the first step forward, howsoever small it may be, initiate your journey, your learning experience. Also, remember that your investment strategy is not set in stone. As your financial goals change and as you get closer to when you plan on pulling money out of your investment accounts, it’s important to review your priorities, your risk profile and your investment performance and readjust things as required.
Happy Investing!!!