Jasmine Birtles, who set up MoneyMagpie.com in the teeth of the Great Financial Crash of 2008, says that the best way females can celebrate International Women’s Day this year is to open an account on an investment platform and set up a monthly standing order to pay into it, even if it’s just £25 a month.
“They say that ‘women save and men invest,’” says Jasmine, “and that’s still very much the case. Many women still don’t have the courage to invest, particularly as, on average, they still earn less than men and therefore feel they have more to lose.
“But study after study has found that, when they have the same level of knowledge, women actually make more money than men with their investments. They tend to do well because they are likely to ‘buy and hold’ their investments for a long time and tend not to ‘gamble big’ like many men do.
“In fact, they generally behave more like top investor Warren Buffett who, as we know, ‘invests like a girl’. I’m not advocating that women just pick the first thing they like the look of and stick some cash in it. When it comes to investing, knowledge is power, so it’s a good idea to take a look at the articles and videos on my site, MoneyMagpie.com, sign up to our free investing newsletter and make the most of the investing tips and resources that are elsewhere on the net.
“There are lots of easy-to-use investing platforms around now, such as AJ Bell, Interactive Investor, eToro and Charles Stanley. And now there is a new one called Trading212 which is not only free to use, but they give at least 5% on any cash sitting in your account waiting to be invested and they’re even offering £100-worth of free shares right now. So it’s a great time to be investing if you’re a woman or a man!”
Jasmine’s 6 top tips for new, female investors are:
First max out your pension for the tax benefits
If you’re employed you should have a pension offered to you by your employer. Grab it and see if you can put more money in each month. The great thing about pensions is that the tax you would have paid on the money you invest is added in so you’re instantly in profit.
Start small with other investments
Open up an ISA account on one of the platforms mentioned above and put what you can in each month, even if it’s just a few quid. Over time you can add to it but starting small will take away some of the fear of losing money.
Leave it
Investing can be very exciting, particularly when you first start, and you might want to keep checking in to see how yours are doing. Don’t. Try not to look at your investments for six months at least and, even if they’re down at that point, don’t rush to take your money out. Investments tend to go up and down in the short term and most of them need to be given a few years at least before you decide to sell.
Start early
Don’t wait until you make more money to invest. Even if you just put away a tenner a month now, it will grow over time. So don’t put it off.
Don’t stop putting cash away for yourself when you have children
Mothers are wonderful for putting their heart, soul and money into the family, but you need to keep investing for yourself too, even if it’s just a small amount each month, so that you can be financially independent when you retire.
If you stop working for a while make sure you get National Insurance credits (check on Gov.uk for that) and, ideally, get your partner to put money into a personal pension for you. You can invest up to £2,880 per tax year into a pension if you’re not working.
Never think it’s too late to invest
One of the most popular articles on MoneyMagpie.com is ‘Help! I’m 50 with no savings. What shall I do?’ which shows that there are a lot of people in this situation.
Everyone wishes they had started investing earlier, but it’s never too late to do it. In fact, even if you’re retired right now you should have extra time to learn more about it so you could become a really good investor quite quickly, making extra cash from the money you already have.
