A recent Time article said there is a Gender Investing Gap, but what exactly does that mean?
Carl Carlson, CEO of Carlson Financial and his daughter Anna Carlson who is also a financial adviser answered this question for News 3 viewers.
Anna said according to the article there is a Gender Investing Gap meaning women keep 71% of their assets in cash, while men only keep 60% of their assets in cash.
Anna believes this may be due to a few reasons, First being that cash is safer than stocks and women are often more conservative with their money and cash is more liquid so if the money is needed for an emergency it is more readily available. Women also receive messages that they aren’t as good at math and they aren’t as good at investing.
But Anna said studies show that when women do actually invest they outperform men by nearly one percent. In 2016 Fidelity did a study of eight million retail clients and found that women typically outperform men because they don’t over-trade, don’t panic in down markets, and don’t pay as much in fees, Anna said.
This has a negative impact on women’s investment portfolios and their retirement aspirations. Anna added the Time article said that with the wage gap and the investing gap both included from starting at age 30 and depending on how much we make it could mean women having $1,000,000 less money at age 65.
In order to fix this Anna suggested women find the right fit financial adviser, noting at Carlson Financial, 50% of their advisers are women.
One women have this adviser it's best to try to change from a mindset of being risk averse to being risk aware.
The article said that when most women understand the risk they are more than willing to take smart risks.
Doing this right, will make such a big difference in each women's retirement future so Anna said to get busy, get started, and get it done!
