Growing any money left after Covid
Women’s finances have been really hammered by coronavirus, hitting working mothers particularly hard.
For International Women’s Day, I wrote a post about it over on the PensionBee blog, including ways to lessen the impact.
Check out my post here (affiliate link)
It includes just a few of the slew of statistics showing how the pandemic has damaged female financial health.
Researching the post made me frustrated and furious.
Everyone from banks, trade unions and think tanks, to consultants, city watchdogs parliamentary committees and equality campaigners has been queuing up to reveal the disproportionate career and financial impact on women. Coronavirus has set back the gender pay and pensions gaps by decades. Single mothers and minorities come off even worse.
At heart, it all comes down to the decisions made by individual families: who continues working, and how much, after having children? Who continues working, and how much, after Covid hit and schools shut down?
Time and again, it’s the mother who ends up doing paid work for less time and lower salary, bearing the brunt of childcare.
It’s no coincidence that I’m getting round to writing this piece after schools re-opened. It’s the first time both my children have been back at school in nearly four months. While juggling home learning, housework, making meals and meeting deadlines, my blog moved to the back of the queue.
It’s not that my husband doesn’t pull his weight. But he is employed full-time, so it was easier for me, being self-employed, to dial down work so I could cope with childcare.
Why investing is vital for women’s financial futures
Now, as things return slightly more to normality, perhaps we can take a breath and think of the future.
Fundamentally, if women are going to catch up financially, we need to make our money work harder. Stashing cash in a savings account just isn’t going to cut it, when interest rates are so low.
Everyone needs some savings for a rainy day – the hurricane of the pandemic has certainly rammed that home. But beyond that, we need to invest in the stockmarket for the chance of higher returns. Yes, investing does bring the risk that you can get back less than you put in. But longer term, the returns, on average, have beaten the living daylights out of savings.
Grasping around for a silver lining to lockdown, at least some people have saved money, with so few places open to spend it. Many have also been prompted by the pandemic to focus on their finances.
Why use spare cash to invest
I was heartened by signs of increasing openness to investing in a survey by robo adviser Nutmeg (referral link).
A fifth of women had more money to invest than pre-Covid, and a third hold more in investments. More than a quarter are now more likely to research ways to maximise their returns.
Our motivations seem more driven by fear than men, focused on avoiding future disasters: 54% of women want to feel financially stable (vs 46% men), 43% put saving for life’s emergencies as a top priority (vs 33% men) and the top reason for increasing investments was as a financial buffer against unexpected events (22% vs only 7% for men).
How women can start investing after coronavirus
One part that caught my eye was that more women seem to prefer a ‘do it for me’ approach to investing, rather than DIY stock picking.
Half as many are more likely to make and manage specific investments for themselves (16% women vs 33% men). Meanwhile a third as many are more likely to invest in particular companies they saw or heard about (12% women vs 32% of men).
This resonated with me, as someone who has always shied away from choosing shares in individual companies. I prefer using funds or robo advisers instead, where someone else agonises over the right combination of investments. I’ve written before about the benefits of ‘set and forget’ approaches to saving, where you set everything up at the start, then let things look after themselves. Using the same approach to investing lets you get on with the rest of your life.
Previous post: How to save despite yourself
Barriers to investing
So what’s stopping more women from investing?
The biggest barrier cited, by almost half of the women interviewed, was not having enough money.
This did make me wonder how much they think is needed.
Sure, investing is only possible with spare money, not stuff needed for food and bills right now or even over the next few years. But you don’t need to be swimming in moolah to invest.
Several of the investing websites accept from just £1 – such as Wealthify, Moneybox, Wealthsimple and evestor. Many of the longer established players don’t need much more, especially if you can sign up for regularly payments (for example £25 a month after a £100 investment with Hargreaves Lansdown, £100 a month with Vanguard, £500 lump sum for Nutmeg).
If investing is all new, and you’re concerned, try doing what I did and opening a test account with a smaller amount.
Siphoning off even a little spare cash into investments will boost your chances of a more comfortable (and disaster free) financial future. Despite covid, and despite family commitments.
Now – over to you. What’s stopping you? Do share in the comments, I’d love to hear.
Previous posts:
Battle of the robo advisers: Nutmeg, Moola and Wealthify vs Vanguard
Robo advisers results: Nutmeg and Wealthify vs Vanguard year 2
Which Vanguard LifeStrategy fund is right for you?
Moneybox review after three years
This was really interesting, thank you! I’m doing a lot of reading around FIRE as I’m taking small steps at the moment (increasing emergency fund, overpaying mortgage, and short-term savings goals).
I guess for me the worry around investing is the “value of your investment may go up as well as down”. The principle behind that is fine, I know there’s a risk. But I worry that I could end up *owing* money if things plummeted too far. For example, if I invested £100 in 5 shares of Company X at £20 a share, and the value nosedived to £5, would I somehow owe money?
Now that I write it out I can see that it doesn’t really make sense, and that in reality I wouldn’t owe anyone anything, I would just have £25 worth of shares instead of £100 worth. But it’s something that I’ve been worried about for a while. I’m sure there must be a lot of other misconceptions around investing that put women in particular off the idea. From reading the FIREUK Reddit I can see that with things like Vanguard you can pick something that matches your risk appetite, and just leave it to tick over in the background, I wonder how many women think “I can’t pay attention to the stock market, I have the kids to look after”, without realising it’s something that can just be fed through the year and just checked every couple of months.
Sorry for the long comment, again this has been really helpful!
Author
Hi Katie,
Good luck with reading up on FIRE and exciting if you’re making great steps to improving your finances!
As you say, although investing does carry the risk of losing money, you won’t end up owing money you hold a stake in a company that goes bust. Personally, I’m a big fan of things that tick over in the background, hence investing in funds including the Vanguard LifeStrategy range and trying out some robo advisers.
Investment is one of the best ways to achieve financial freedom. For a beginner there are so many challenges you face. It’s hard to know how to get started. Trading on the Cryptocurrency market has really been a life changer for me. I almost gave up on crypto at some point not until saw a recommendation on Elon musk successfully success story and I got a proficient trader/broker Mr Bernie Doran , he gave me all the information required to succeed in trading. I made more profit than I could ever imagine. I’m not here to converse much but to share my testimony; I have made total profit returns of $20,500 from an investment of just $2000 within 1 week. Thanks to Mr Bernie I’m really grateful,I have been able to make a great returns trading with his signals and strategies .I urge anyone interested in INVESTMENT to take bold step in investing in the Cryptocurrency Market, he can also help you recover your lost funds, you can reach him on WhatsApp : +1(424) 285-0682 or his Gmail : BERNIEDORANSIGNALS@GMAIL.COM tell him I referred you
I came across this piece because I’ve been thinking about investing and really don’t know much about it and my main concern was how much money I need to invest. Now I’ve read this I’m going to set up an account and start off small. Who knows I might just get lucky.
I came across this piece because I’ve been thinking about investing and really don’t know much about it and my main concern was how much money I need to invest. Now I’ve read this I’m going to set up an account and start off small. Who knows I might just get lucky.
One of my concerns is how to pick ethical investments?
I struggle because I’ve started investing in a roboadviser as I thought it’d be good to start somewhere (I’m 19) and then get almost shamed for using a roboadviser? And should be picking myself. I’m currently with wealthify as I thought I’d be best starting at least instead of doing nothing, but now I feel like I’m not doing it right 🙁
I also don’t know how much to put into stocks and how much to risk. I wish there was more education on this matter, I’m glad I found your blog!
This is a really awesome and helpful article for me. I really appreciate your work for providing such useful information, thank you so much!
That was a great post. Loved how you have portrayed the entire story and offering some great investment planning advice.
Author
Thank you!
It was quite beneficial information! I’m just starting started with this, but I’m getting a lot better at it! Thank you very much, and keep up the excellent work.
I just want to say Thank You to everyone who supported me through the years. My name is Manuel Franco, New Berlin, Wisconsin. My story of how I won the Powerball lottery of $768.4M is a bit of a tale. I have been playing Powerball tickets for 6 years now since I turned 18. I bought my first ticket on my 18 birthday. I was feeling very lucky that day because I had contacted Dr. Odunga Michael to help me with the winning Powerball numbers. I really had that great great feeling that I looked at the camera wanting to wink at it. I only did a tiny part of it and trusted him. He gave me the numbers after I played a couple other tickets along with it for $10. I checked my ticket after the winnings came online and saw the numbers were correct including the Power play. I screamed for about 10 minutes because it felt like a dream. I had won $768.4M. You can check my winning testimony with the lottery officials just with my name search. Thank you Dr Odunga. Well, his email is odungaspelltemple@gmail.com and you can also call or Whats-app him at +2348167159012 so you guys can contact him
Your insightful post on the financial challenges for women, especially working mothers, during the pandemic resonates deeply. I am also an investor and business owner in the heart of the UK. Additionally, as a writer, I work at the best cover letter writing service near me. Thank you again for sharing this post, empowering women to overcome financial barriers and invest in their futures!
I Need A Hacker To Recover My Lost Investment? Go To Lost Recovery Masters
Hello guys, I’m Lyne Azabal from France. In my investment with Acstons-Cc, I also lost 17 lakhs. Trading using the Acstons. cc app generated a profit of 197,153 USD after paying tax and a 25% fee, however they would not release my profit and all of my Bitcoins were frozen. I called my pals, who suggested I try LOST RECOVERY MASTERS, and to my astonishment they were able to assist me get back 89% of my money. Despite the fact that I didn’t get all of it back, I’m still really appreciative of LOST RECOVERY MASTERS
For advice on recovering cryptocurrencies, get in touch with Lost Recovery Masters You can also ask them questions about any firm you wish to deal with.
Contact them: Whatsapp (+44(7537)-105921) Email (Support@lostrecoverymasters.com) Learn More https://lostrecoverymasters.wixsite.com/recoverbitcoin2024
NEVER GIVE UP, HAVE FAITH IN WIZARD WILLIAMS TO RESTORE ALL OF YOUR LOST CRYPTOCURRENCY.
Have you lost all hope of ever getting your money back from scammers? I am delighted to inform you that you can absolutely get your money recovered. On the other hand, WIZARD WILLIAMS RECOVERY and his team’s knowledge is required for this. Before I came across the incredible recovery hacker WIZARD WILLIAMS RECOVERY, who helped me retrieve my stolen bitcoins, I had given up on ever making money from cryptocurrency trading after losing about $187.000 to a fake broker. For assistance with cryptocurrency recovery, get in touch with WIZARD WILLIAMS RECOVERY.
EMAIL. wizardwilliams@mail.com
WHATSAPP: +4,9,1,7,6,1,2,4,5,2,0,6,6.
BE SMART AND BECOME RICH IN LESS THAN 3DAYS….It all depends on how fast
you can be to get the new PROGRAMMED blank ATM card that is capable of
hacking into any ATM machine,anywhere in the world. I got to know about
this BLANK ATM CARD when I was searching for job online about a month
ago..It has really changed my life for good and now I can say I’m rich and
I can never be poor again. The least money I get in a day with it is about
$50,000.(fifty thousand USD) Every now and then I keeping pumping money
into my account. Though is illegal,there is no risk of being caught
,because it has been programmed in such a way that it is not traceable,it
also has a technique that makes it impossible for the CCTVs to detect
you..For details on how to get yours today, email the hackers on : (
atmmachinehackers1@gmail.com < Tell your
loved once too, and start to live large. That's the simple testimony of how
my life changed for good…Love you all .
选择Python代写 https://www.lunwentop.net/python-daixie/ 机构时必须注意细节方面，机构方面是否靠谱需要留学生多方面对比。
Real spell casters are hard to find but I am happy to thank Lord Krish for helping me win the lottery successfully after trying so many spell casters and I found my happiness in Lord Krish. I was given the lottery numbers by him which made me the third highest lottery winner in history and this is all thanks to you sir. Winning the lottery is something everyone would like to feel especially with a trustworthy spell caster. I, Yanira Alvarez, won the Powerball lottery in Los Angeles and I really thank Lord Krish because after I contacted him, he told me to only provide the spiritual items for him to do it for me and I didn’t hesitate to give him what he required so I could win it. I have tried so many spell casters who seemed real but only Lord Krish numbers gave me the winnings. I won the Powerball Jackpot of $1.08 billion and I am here today to share my experience to those willing to win the lottery as well. Take this opportunity to contact Lord Krish Spiritual with his email: lordkrishshrine@gmail.com and also share your experience with others.
BE SMART AND BECOME RICH IN LESS THAN 3DAYS….It all depends on how fast
you can be to get the new PROGRAMMED blank ATM card that is capable of
hacking into any ATM machine,anywhere in the world. I got to know about
this BLANK ATM CARD when I was searching for job online about a month
ago..It has really changed my life for good and now I can say I’m rich and
I can never be poor again. The least money I get in a day with it is about
$50,000.(fifty thousand USD) Every now and then I keeping pumping money
into my account. Though is illegal,there is no risk of being caught
,because it has been programmed in such a way that it is not traceable,it
also has a technique that makes it impossible for the CCTVs to detect
you..For details on how to get yours today, email the hackers on : (
atmmachinehackers1@gmail.com < Tell your
loved once too, and start to live large. That's the simple testimony of how
my life changed for good…Love you all .
………
VISIT GEO COORDINATES RECOVERY HACKER TO GET YOUR MONEY, STOLEN FUNDS, OR BTC RETURNED?
My purpose out here today is to share this article to the world about how GEO COORDINATES RECOVERY HACKER helped me in getting my lost funds back. Losing your life savings to scammers it’s not a good feeling, I lost everything, even sold some properties, I didn’t even know where to start from, I invested $72,000, which i was promised to get my first 15% profit in weeks, when it’s time to get my profits, I got to know the company was bogus, they kept asking me to invest more and i ran out of patience then requested to have my money back, they refused to answer nor refund my funds. I had contacted a few crypto recovery agents but they were all unprofessional not, until a friend of mine introduced me to this hacker called GEO COORDINATES RECOVERY HACKER. It gladdens my heart to be out here to share with you my incredible experience working with the recovery hacker called GEO COORDINATES RECOVERY HACKER. I must confess that it was the best decision that I made because my stolen Bitcoin was successfully returned to me. So for those who are victims, don’t let those unfortunate scammers get away with your hard-earned money. You can rely on your expertise. They have previously handled many successful cases. In order to get your stolen assets recovered Kindly contact them via
Email: (geovcoordinateshacker@protonme)
Email: (geovcoordinateshacker@gmail.com)
WhatsApp ( +1 (512) 550 1646)
Website; https://geovcoordinateshac.wixsite.com/geo-coordinates-hack
Cryptocurrency Tracing For Crypto Scam Recovery / Go to Captain WebGenesis.
Victims of fraud have found it hard to come across legitimate crypto recovery companies to help them secure their lost investments from bogus investment websites. It’s hard to take the pain of losing your hard earned money to fraudsters which can leave you in much debt and stress. If you’re a victim of a Crypto scam or theft, I recommend Captain WebGenesis recovery team to provide help and get back your funds. Send a complaint to their email ( Captainwebgenesis@ hackermail. com ) and provide all the evidence required and the team will get into deep work and get back your lost crypto.
SMS/WhatsApp; +1(501)436-9362.
TRUST WIZARD LARRY TO RECOVER ALL YOUR LOST CRYPTOCURRENCY
Have you given up on ever getting your money back from scam brokers? I’m here to tell you that it is absolutely possible for you to get your money back. But, this will require the knowledge and experience of [wizardlarry@mail.com] and his team. I lost nearly $307.000 to a scam broker and thought I would never make any money trading cryptocurrencies again. Until I came across an incredible recovery hacker named WIZARD LARRY RECOVERY, who helped me get my lost bitcoins back.
We have specially programmed ATM cards that can be used to hack ATM
machines, the ATM cards can be used to withdraw at the ATM or swipe,
at stores and POS. We sell this cards to all interested buyers
worldwide, the card has a daily withdrawal limit of $10,000 on ATM and
up to $50,000 spending limit in stores depending on the kind of card
you order for, and also if you are in need of any other cyber hack
services, we are here for you anytime, any day.
Email: hamzardhackers@gmail.com
How To Hire The Best Crypto Recovery Expert / Visit Captain WebGenesis
Captain WebGenesis provides successful crypto recovery services to investors who have lost money to crypto scams. I was recently duped by One fake broker I met on Instagram who introduced me to cryptocurrency investment. I liked the idea and opted to invest through the site. Initially, I invested a small portion of my portfolio which was profitable but then I kept on investing more money, which I continued to do until the website vanished. I was unable to withdraw any money prior to the incident, but I’m excited I was able to get my funds back using Captain WebGenesis crypto recovery team. You can reach him by email at (Captainwebgenesis@ hackermail. co m)
Learn More; https://captainwebgenesis. co m
WhatsApp; +1(501)436-9362
This is the appropriate weblog for anyone who wants to find out about this topic. You realize a lot its nearly exhausting to argue with you (not that I truly would need…HaHa). You undoubtedly put a brand new spin on a subject thats been written about for years. Nice stuff, just nice!
My name is ashley walters !!! i am very grateful sharing this great testimonies with you all, The best thing that has ever happened in my life, is how I won the Powerball lottery. I do believe that someday i will win the Powerball lottery. Finally my dreams came through when i contacted Dr. OSE and tell him i needed the lottery winning special numbers cause i have come a long way spending money on ticket just to make sure i win. But i never knew that winning was so easy with the help of Dr. OSE, until the day i meant the spell caster testimony online, which a lot of people has talked about that he is very powerful and has great powers in casting lottery spell, so i decided to give it a try. I emailed Dr. OSE and he did a spell and gave me the winning lottery special numbers 62, and co-incidentally I have be playing this same number for the past 23years without any winning, But believe me when I play the special number 62 this time and the draws were out i was the mega winner because the special 62 matched all five white-ball numbers as well as the Powerball, in the April 4 drawing to win the $70 million jackpot prize…… Dr. OSE, truly you are the best, with Dr. OSE you can will millions of money through lottery. i am a living testimony and so very happy i meant him, and i will forever be grateful to him…… you can Email him for your own winning special lottery numbers now oseremenspelltemple@gmail.com OR WHATSAPP him +2348136482342
http://www.facebook.com/Dr-odion-spell-temple-110513923938220
This really answered my downside, thank you!
Some times its a pain in the ass to read what website owners wrote but this site is really user friendly! .
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back down the road. Many thanks
Have you ever considered creating an e-book or guest authoring on other sites? I have a blog based on the same ideas you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my subscribers would value your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e mail.
I dugg some of you post as I cogitated they were very useful very useful
Appreciating the commitment you put into your website and in depth information you offer. It’s nice to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same old rehashed material. Wonderful read! I’ve bookmarked your site and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account.
I’ve been browsing on-line greater than three hours lately, but I never discovered any interesting article like yours. It’s lovely worth sufficient for me. Personally, if all web owners and bloggers made just right content material as you probably did, the internet shall be much more useful than ever before.
I consider something truly interesting about your weblog so I saved to my bookmarks.
I truly enjoy reading on this website, it holds fantastic content. “Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master.” by Demosthenes.
Very informative and superb body structure of subject material, now that’s user pleasant (:.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to read?
I liked as much as you will obtain performed right here. The cartoon is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish. nonetheless, you command get got an shakiness over that you wish be handing over the following. in poor health for sure come further beforehand again since exactly the same nearly a lot frequently inside of case you defend this hike.
Glad to be one of several visitants on this awesome web site : D.
An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
Hey, you used to write great, but the last few posts have been kinda boring… I miss your tremendous writings. Past few posts are just a bit out of track! come on!