SerpApi.Org
A Berkhamsted mum has spoken about learning to invest for the first time after years spent prioritising raising her children, saying she realised she no longer wanted a lack of knowledge to hold her back.
Louise, from Berkhamsted, decided it was finally time to learn about investing now that her children are older and she has more time to focus on her own financial future. Having always believed investing required significant knowledge and time, she admitted she had put it off for years, despite sometimes wondering how much she could have benefited from starting earlier.
Louise joined etoro's 7-Day Loud Investing Challenge, alongside former Lioness Jill Scott MBE and women from across the UK, to see whether just 20 minutes of learning a day could change the way women think about investing. The Loud Investing Challenge forms the latest phase of etoro's Loud Investing campaign, which aims to help tackle the UK's estimated £574bn gender investment gap by challenging the barriers preventing more women from investing.
Her experience comes as new research suggests millions of women may be held back from investing not by a lack of interest or ability, but by the perception that it's too difficult to get started.
The nationally representative study found that 68% of women in the South East believe investing is too complex, while 74% think they need to learn more before they can begin and 67% believe investing requires too much time.
To explore whether those perceptions could be changed, eToro partnered with behavioural finance expert Dr Ylva Baeckström of King's Business School on a first-of-its-kind study. Participants completed the seven-day challenge before repeating a behavioural assessment measuring changes in how they viewed investing.
The results suggest that even a short period of accessible financial education can have a significant impact. The proportion of women describing investing as "very" or "extremely" complex fell from 50% to 15%, while the number who felt investing was "for people like me" more than doubled, from 34% to 71%. Those planning to begin investing immediately also almost tripled, increasing from 13% to 38%.
Louise said taking part had transformed the way she viewed investing.
Dr Ylva Baeckström, Senior Lecturer in Finance at King's Business School, said the findings challenge common assumptions about why women invest less than men.
"For many women, the barrier isn't ability or interest. Instead, women have often been excluded from opportunities to acquire financial knowledge, meaning investing can appear much more complex than it really is.
"Our research suggests women are better described as 'risk aware' than 'risk averse'. Once participants understood more about investing and the risks of not investing, they became much more comfortable making informed financial decisions."
Dan Moczulski, UK Managing Director at etoro, added: "Too many women hold back because they believe they need to understand everything before they begin. The Loud Investing Challenge showed that when investing is broken down into simple, manageable steps, those barriers become much smaller. You don't need to be an expert to get started – you just need to take the first step."
