Campaign to get Sisters Doing it for Themselves

A campaign has been launched to encourage British women to engage with savings and investment after a survey revealed that women are far less likely to engage with their finances or invest than their menfolk.

The survey conducted by financial website Boring Money revealed that 34% of women have no pension arrangement and a conclusive 85% have no engagement with the stock market.

The research also found that 11% of women, compared to 5% of men, are very uncomfortable with saving into a pension.

Despite living longer, women typically save 38% less than men, meaning their average retirement income is likely to be around £5,000 a year lower than men’s.

With an average life expectancy four years longer than men, women really need to find an additional £100,000 for a retirement income of £25,000 a year to bridge that gap.

Pension provision was not the only area that women lagged behind men – just 10% of women have stocks and shares ISAs compared to 17% of men and only 7% of women hold other investments or unit trusts, compared with 14% of men.

Overall, women lag behind men in terms of engagement with all aspects of DIY investment – a very disappointing 32% of customers of the top 10 DIY investment platforms are female.

To encourage more women to invest and engage with financial matters Boring Money has launched a campaign called Ladies Losing Out to try to close the gender gap.

‘a very disappointing 32% of customers of the top 10 DIY investment platforms are female’

Founder of Boring Money, Holly Mackay, said: ‘We were inspired to run this campaign to address the astonishing gap which remains between men and women when it comes to savings, pensions and investments. Women typically live longer and yet save less. We tend to avoid what we perceive to be risky investments but in doing so, are consigning ourselves to a retirement of scrimping and struggling.’

Mackay said: ‘At Boring Money, we are contacted by a growing number of women who feel alienated by the investment world but are fed up with perennially low interest rates. Lots of women I talk to just don’t perceive themselves as investors. They don’t think they’re rich enough, they’ve previously delegated it or they don’t think they’re smart enough. I want to challenge this and help them.

The City has been a bastion of stiff grey suits, talking to fellow investment enthusiasts in self-congratulatory jargon for too long. We can’t wait any longer and the figures speak for themselves.

Ladies are losing out. I wanted to try a totally new approach which feels inclusive, which feels achievable and which feels relevant. I want women to think about investments and to say ‘Yes We Can’. This is the goal of our campaign.’
Boring Money recruited seven women to explain their attitudes and share their experiences and aims debunk what it sees as urban myths in relation to pensions and investment to show ‘normal women’ that investing is easier and more accessible than they might think.

However, the good news is that once engaged, women are often achieve better investment outcomes due, according to Boring Money, us chaps can’t help but ‘fiddle with things’. Charmant.

Anyway, no time to worry about that, I’m just going to check my portfolio.