Power Move is a three part series all about investing, brought to you by Future Women in partnership with Vanguard Australia. This article recaps the key points discussed in episode 3 with Rachel White, including common investing myths and how to get start investing.
Myth #1: Men are better at investing
While investing may be perceived as more male-dominated, it's not always the case that men are better investors than women.
Recent research from Warwick business school surveyed around 2800 investors, both male and female, and tracked their investment performance over a three year period. What they found was that on average, women actually outperformed their male counterparts by 1.8 per cent.
The results showed that male investors tend to indulge in a riskier style of investing. They seek out speculative type investment stocks; stocks that go up a large amount in a really short timeframe. But when picking stocks that have a high potential for strong returns, the level of risk is also higher.
Women, on the other hand, were investing more to support their financial goals. They're thinking about the long term and they're taking a measured, disciplined approach, rather than chasing that short term thrill for a big payoff.
Myth #2: A large stockpile of money is needed to invest
The misconception that you need a large sum of money to make investing worthwhile is particularly common with younger Australians.
A study recently found that 18 to 34 year olds felt that they needed at least $5,000 to get started. But that's not the case in reality.
Two key factors that contribute to successful investing is to 1) start early and to 2) invest regular amounts.
The time that you spend trying to save up a big pool of money to start investing (like you might do for a house deposit) is time that you're not in the market and time in which you're not reaping the benefits of compounding returns.
Different investment products and platforms will have different minimum investment requirements but many out there today, including Vanguard Personal Investor, allows investors to start with just $500.
Myth #3: Investing is too time consuming
To many, investing may seem quite daunting because of the time required to research products, set up accounts and monitor performance. They often think that they're too time poor to undertake such a process.
But really, how much time and effort you spend on investing is completely up to you. There's a range of different investment options out there that require different levels of time and commitment.
For example, you can outsource to an investment manager who can help guide you if you think you don't have the time or knowledge to manage investments on your own.
Alternatively, there are a number of "set and forget" options that are very accessible and won't take up too much time. Index investing is a great example of this as they're low in cost, simple to set up and designed for the long-term so there's no need to monitor daily.
To find out more about the different type of investments available to you, listen to Power Move today, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any of your favourite podcast apps.
Vanguard Australia