It’s an interesting question and of course I can’t answer it for you, but I can say that investing in the stock market doesn’t have to be as scary as you think it is. Or as risky. You can help protect yourself from falls in the market (like we have just experienced) if you practice good money management techniques.
I have been making money in the stock market now for many years (has it really been nearly ten years now?) and along the way have learnt a few tricks or two which I’ve revealed in my book Shopping for Shares.
I wanted to write a guide from a women’s perspective of investing in the markets and reveal all of the information that I wanted to know when I was starting out. Of course it’s not just for women investors (although I’m not sure too many men want to buy a book with a bright pink spine).
But back to you.
The reason why I think that women should invest in the stock market is because it’s been proven that we are just better investors than men and can make more money. Yep I know that the market doesn’t really know (or care) whether you are male or female. But research has shown that we take less risks than men do and overall our portfolio’s tend to do better in the long run.
The New York Times recently reported that during the financial crisis of 2008 & 2009 women fared MUCH better than men did as they didn’t make rash decisions and stayed the course, whereas men tended to become overconfident and sold out at all time lows only to miss out when the shares rose back up again.
The data came from Vanguard, a leading US mutual fund company who looked at their data over the years prior to and during the latest market crash to see who did better overall.
Of course this information is nothing new to me as I’ve known for many years that women make better investors than men. Or at least those that have a little understanding of the markets do.
