CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Despite a sharp increase in the number of women investing outside of traditional retirement accounts, new data from Fidelity shows women are still behind men when it comes to accumulating retirement savings.
And when it comes to investment apps, there's more to it than simple branding, financial experts say. It takes a lot more than marketing to create investing tools tailored to women.
"It can't just be the things that used to work for men and just put a pink label on it," Bernadette Joy, the founder of Charlotte-based Crush Your Money Goals, said. "A lot of my clients who actually really think about investing, they look at what's available in terms of investment products. A lot of those investment products aren't aligned to what women really want to invest in."
It's a practice that women are behind on. According to the Transamerica Center for Retirement Students, women fall behind in retirement savings and investments when it comes IRA's, 401(k)s and brokerage accounts.
Still, breaking down a study from Fidelity on women and investing showed that as of 2021, 67% of women are investing outside of retirement accounts. That was up 23% from 2018.
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Over the last decade, Fidelity researchers found that women outperformed men by about half a percent. As for what they're investing in, researches listed individual stocks and bonds, mutual funds or ETFs, money market funds and cryptocurrencies.
It's something Joy pushes for with her clients.
"I'm really encouraging women, in particular this month, Women's History Month, to kind of book the historical trend of being underpaid and undervalued and taking control of our financial system," Joy said.
Contact Kia Murray at kmurray@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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