Women And Investments

I’m a Wall Street junkie. I read lots of business articles online weekly, read Motley Fool, and used to watch CNBC everyday until their commentators started to get on my last nerve, so now I tune into Bloomberg. Unfortunately the market has been extremely unkind to me in the last several months like it’s been to many others. I don’t really like to play the market, so once my money gets parked on a stock it pretty much stays there unless the fundamentals change. This can lead to some serious damage, because it’s basically an old school practice, and today I believe you have to be a lot more nimble.

Right now I’ve got quite a few shares in Apple, RIMM, and hundreds of other shares in some of the financials I bought at bottom basement prices. I’m hoping to hold onto them for a couple of years, and when investor confidence is restored in the banking industry, I’ll make a tidy profit. However, let’s face it. Not every woman is comfortable with investing, and in most households the man is responsible for calling the shots, and preparing for retirement.

So many women seem to be clueless about the family investments, and prefer to keep it that way, or so I was taught in college. Is this necessarily prudent? Assuming either the husband, or his wife lack the knowledge to make informed investment decisions it probably doesn’t matter. Generally we perceive the investment strategies between men and women are difference. Men are supposedly bolder, go it alone types usually focused on a single task, while women are more social creatures who like to multitask, prefer lower risk and diversification, and love to join investment groups which provide a nurturing environment. A University of Sweden professor, Rita Martenson, looked at studies on the subject from the United States and across Europe. In her book, ‘Are Men Better Investors Then Women? Gender Differences In Mutual Fund and Pension Investments,’ she concludes men and women do invest differently, but it has little do with their gender and much more to do with their culture. What she concludes is that given the skills and knowledge about investing men and women behave in similar ways. She points to a state public pension in Sweden in which participants with like individual characteristics were allowed to invest a part of their retirement in a risky, but potentially more profitable mutual fund. 68% of the women signed up for the fund, while 66% of the men. Conclusion. Smart people like to make money no matter what their sex.