Mar 10, 2017
Personal Investor: Investing confidence gap holding women back
By Dale Jackson
A new CIBC survey released Friday reinforces the old stereotype that women are risk-averse when it comes to investing. It finds that while 92 per cent of respondents take an active role in household investment decisions, only half feel confident or knowledgeable when it comes to investing.
It also found 72 per cent of women identified safety as being very important to them, 58 per cent said growth was important, and 33 per cent chose liquidity.
As a result, the survey concludes women tend to be “conservative investors, unwilling to take on higher risk to achieve the possibility of greater investment returns.”
That helps explain why the women surveyed tend to favour guaranteed savings products like bonds over riskier equities like stocks.
Seventy per cent said volatility in the stock market makes them nervous.
With equity markets hitting record highs maybe that’s a good thing. Being risk-averse for one woman could be prudence for another.
