Women, Financial Power and Barriers to Investing

The good news first. Behavioural finance has found women perform well when they do invest. Research work carried out by Terrance Odean, Professor of Finance at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business shows that women tend to trade less actively than men which incurs lower trading costs; they behave more like ‘buy and hold’ investors sticking to their long term goals. The study stated that ‘virtually all of the gender-based difference in performance can be traced to the fact that men tend to trade more aggressively than women.’Another earlier study talks about the human quality of overconfidence and notes the gender differences. “ Psychological research has established that men are more prone to overconfidence than women, particularly so in male-dominated realms such as Finance. Rational investors trade only if the expected gains exceed transactions costs. Overconfident investors overestimate the precision of their information and thereby the expected gains of trading.”

So, why are women still lagging behind in investing then?

A recent Fidelity UK based study states ‘the majority of women don’t invest in the stock market’,’ ‘women favour the perceived caution of cash.’ Women face penalties that affect their career progression and earning potential titled in the study as ‘The Motherhood Penalty’, ‘The Childcare Penalty’ and ‘The Good Daughter Penalty’ - namely, opting out of careers to have children, paying for childcare and caring for elderly relatives. The word 'penalties' is cringe worthy to hear as it implies being punished for contributing to caring for life itself. And yet the reality is that our economic system does not recognize women (or men) or for making choices for ‘unpaid’ yet hard work.

A lack of understanding about what investments can offer is also a significant barrier. What was disturbing (although not shocking in my experience as a financial adviser) to read was that more than half of the women invested had no idea where their pension fund was invested and over a third didn’t know how much their pensions were worth.

So, opting out of the workforce for legitimate reasons, then having gaps in earnings and living longer result in a real problem - a pension gap. Women are also short-changed by the gender pay gap which contributes to lower pension and investment contributions. Women have a smaller pension pot size than men at all ages, tend to have more money in cash ISAs and less money in Stocks & Share ISAs overall. This worries me and at the same time, also galvanizes me into wanting to educate more and more women about how we can empower ourselves financially.

One of the actions suggested by the study is to increase pension contributions by 1%. To me, this seems too little. I would suggest really working out for yourself based on when you wish to achieve financial independence and what is sustainable as an annual income for you, what would be most appropriate. Make sure you reassess this regularly, at least once or twice a year. The 4% rule is an easy way to work out what you need for retirement.

Another action I recommend is empowering yourself with financial literacy skills. Read your pension valuation statements, Google any terms you don’t understand, fill your feedly with interesting personal finance reading material, call the pension providers help-desk and ask them to explain or help you with reading material to help you understand what you are reading- be persistent with this. And google Trustnet and the names of the funds you are invested in and train your eyes to visually read the information- information is so easily available and you can train yourself to read this if you are willing to persist through some initial discomfort if you feel incompetent. You could also speak to someone you know who is financially more literate than you and willing to help or mentor you. I encourage you to advocate for your own needs - for financial literacy and healthy financial choices. There are so many resources available, you don’t always need a financial adviser necessarily to understand what you are invested in and what the overall value of your pension pot is. And by the way, even highly intelligent, competent finance professionals that I have worked with as clients tend not to look at their pension statements or necessarily take the time to understand them. So, I really want to reassure you that if you have a clear intention and follow through with an action, you can easily overcome this hurdle.

A study from the other side of the pond titled ‘Women & Financial Wellness: Beyond the Bottom Line’ by Merrill Lynch illustrates the issue of the ‘gender wealth gap’ which is the difference between men’s and women’s accumulated assets.

Some of the actions suggested in this study which I liked are:

Break the taboo around money talk-Have you heard of Conversation Cafes? Nothing stops you from hosting one with about 6-8 people; here are some guidelines to follow to help you get going. Apparently 61% of women would rather talk about death than money. I offer you a gentle challenge to break this social conditioning we have and move towards feeling comfortable and confident speaking about money.

Start early- compounding & longevity can work in your favour. If you spend time out of the workforce, remember to catch up with contributions into your pension once you start working again or brainstorm strategies on how you could take care of your children and also take care of your future self financially.

I hope you will take some action to support women investing more, regardless of your gender. As for me, I intend to host a few Conversation Cafes around the topic of money both online and in London; if you want to support this work and get involved, please drop me a line.

Happy Financial Future and if you want to attend one of my webinars about feeling more confident about investing and retirement planning, sign up to my Newsletter. I intend to follow through on doing more to help educate women (and include men) on investing.