67% of US Women Prefer Investing Into Non-Retirement Savings

The 2021 Women and Investing Study done by financial services company Fidelity found that 67% of women invest in options other than their retirement accounts. When compared with numbers from 2018, this marks a massive 52% increase.

Thanks to modern technology, many people can now invest more effortlessly than ever before. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, job insecurity, and more significant financial stress, Fidelity’s survey found that 20% of women invested in new asset classes during the past year. We also saw a record 43% increase in the number of new retail investing accounts held by women and a record-high average of 9.2% in women’s workplace savings account contributions. Also, looking at a ten-year period, the study found that investments made by women outperformed male investments by 0.4%.

Some of the most popular investments were individual stocks or bonds (67%), followed closely by mutual funds/ETFs (63%). 23% of new asset investments were cryptocurrency-related.

The figures clearly show that the market has gained many new investors. However, there are still many obstacles in the way, but finances don’t seem to be the main one. Namely, women are in an excellent position to let their money do the work. 47% of the survey respondents say they already have $20,000 in savings, while 18% have $100,000 or more. 

The most significant obstacle is the lack of investing know-how. This is somewhat surprising, especially since we live in the era of robo-advisors and other tools that simplify the investment process. Only 41% of female investors said that they feel comfortable with their level of investment knowledge. 65% said they would be more likely to invest if they were more confident in the steps they would need to take.  

One of the more interesting findings is that nearly 69% of women wish that they had started investing much earlier. Looking into the future, 62% plan to learn more about financial planning and investing. 52% want to create a plan to help them reach their financial goals, and 44% plan to reach out to a financial professional. Finally, 42% of US women plan to invest more of their savings and let the money work for them in the future.