Despite coming from different backgrounds, these investors have a common drive to achieve long-term investment success…

There are more Australian females investing outside of their primary residence and superannuation than ever before.

According to the 2023 ASX Australian Investor Study, of the net 1.2 million new investors who started investing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after 2020, half were female. The percentage of next generation female investors rose from 9% in 2020 to 11% in 2023.

Here are the stories of three female Vanguard investors. We asked each of them to explain why and how they started investing, the lessons they’ve learned along the way, and the advice they would give either to their younger self or to their friends.

(Read below or watch video here)

Inspirations to start investing

For Carole Okigbo, the inspiration to start investing came from an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show she watched in high school featuring a panel of people who had retired as multi-millionaires.

“They were firefighters, kindergarten teachers, just regular people,” Carole says. “But the commonality amongst them was that they were very disciplined in their investing approach and were able to be successful retirees and millionaires.

“And that was really the groundwork for my investing philosophy in that I recognised it’s really not about how much money you make. Obviously, the more you make, the better. But being disciplined is what sets one up for a strong financial future. And I really adopted that investing philosophy going forward.”

Carole’s first investment was a term deposit, investing $200 to earn savings interest in return for investing her money for a set period. But over time she began investing in individual stocks, real estate, and then into different exchange traded funds (ETFs).

“My investment portfolio is probably a little different today from the term deposit days. But look, I would say at a high level, my ethos remains the same. I’m investing for the future; I’m investing for the long term.

“I have a core holding of assets that track the index and are globally diversified across stocks and bonds, internationally and domestically.

“Then I have a satellite portfolio of some real estate holdings that I’ve accumulated over the years, because I do have an interest in that asset class, as well as some private companies that I’ve invested in along the way.”

Gwyn Low’s inspiration to start investing came from a book covering the basics of investing she began reading while lying in a hammock.

“I realised, oh my goodness, I need to do something about this,” she explains. “I just knew that I had to start somewhere. Throughout the years, I’ve learned that investing means that I am on a journey of financial freedom and financial independence. So, in the future I might be able to volunteer more and have flexibility in my paid work.”

Gwyn says she quickly moved away from micro investing, because she wasn’t happy with the returns, and began investing in individual Australian companies on the ASX. But she then turned her focus to getting broader market exposures, to American and Asian markets, and began using ETFs.

“Now I’m with Vanguard and I’m really enjoying the products and learning about investing on a day-to-day basis.”

Emily Cornfoot’s inspiration to start investing at just 18 came after she had saved up some money earned from a summer job. Her father advised her to invest into ETFs.

“So, my first investment was both Australian and international shares for ETFs. I decided to choose that because I know they’re really low maintenance and I didn’t want to bother keeping up with the stock market. I just wanted to put it in the Vanguard account and let it do the rest.

“And now what I do is every couple of pay cheques, I’ll put more money into those. I think I’m going to keep my strategy the same, at least in the short term.”

Investment lessons along the way

Carole says she has learned various investing lessons along the way.

“I would say the first is if I don’t understand it, I don’t buy it. What I mean by that is if the business model is too complicated, if it’s not grounded in intrinsic value, if I, you know, can’t explain it to the person next door, then it’s probably a little bit too esoteric for me. And so, I stay away from it.

“And then my second biggest lesson learned is I don’t make any concentrated bets. And I learned that lesson the hard way. I put a good amount of my bonus money into one specific stock because I thought it was undervalued. And lo and behold, that was not the case. The ability to not think that I can beat the market is something that I hold dear to me going forward.”

Gwyn says that just having the courage to take the first steps and start investing, and even making some mistakes along the way, has been her biggest learning.

“I’ve learned that you just have to try and sometimes you might fail and there’s little bumps along the way that you learn just by doing. I don’t think I would do anything differently, because I think those lessons were completely necessary, particularly as someone who was young and starting the journey from scratch.

“I sort of just had to try and learn along the way and listen to friends and family. But I think now, if you’re willing, there’s a lot of resources available and information at hand to really learn and start your investing journey.”

For Emily, the lesson she has learned is not to check on her investment portfolio all the time.

“I only look at it quarterly, because when I first started investing, the first couple of months were not great. I find it pretty disheartening to look at something like ETFs, which are a long-term investment, that frequently.

“So, learning to just not bother looking at it, especially when I know I’m not changing my portfolio. I just let it exist.”

What you would tell your younger self or friends

Start as early as you can. That’s one piece of advice all three investors have in common when asked what they would tell their younger selves or friends.

“Don’t wait until you’ve amassed a certain amount of money,” Carole says. “Just like I learned watching that Oprah episode, you know, just a little bit every month of what you have goes a long way because of the eighth wonder of the world – compounding interest. Start sooner than you think you need to.”

Gwyn says that starting investor as early as possible can allow investors to put strategies in place early on that will enable them “to set and forget”.

“I would say to women who may be a bit unsure about starting their investing journey to just start. It’s never too late. And the sooner you start, the better. You just need to give it a go and see what happens. There’s no harm in just trying things out and seeing how they go.”

Emily says that she has young friends that, rather than investing, have put all of their savings into low interest bank accounts.

“So, advice that I’d give to other young people is to take your money out of a savings account and put it into something like an ETF where it’s not getting eroded by inflation and you also get the return on your investment as well.”

Important Information

“This publication features the personal opinions and experiences of three retail clients of Vanguard Investments Australia Ltd (ABN 72 072 881 086 / AFS Licence 227263). These views are presented for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial advice. Vanguard Investments Australia Ltd (ABN 72 072 881 086 / AFS Licence 227263) does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the opinions expressed in this publication. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and seek professional financial advice before making any investment decisions.”