Women investors may invest differently than men – and it could pay off.
In 1999, UC Davis researchers Terry Odean and Brad Barber studied the investment behavior of men versus women. They found that in general, men traded 45% more actively than women, and single men traded 67% percent more actively than single women. When it came time to run the numbers on the buy-and-hold, women in general underperformed 1%, men in general underperformed by 1.4% and single men by 2%. That means the women did the best!
For tips on investing: For introductory advice on investing, Brixey recommends www.wife.org, which provides a lot of information on investments, as well as several financial calculators. (They also sell a cute “A Man Is Not a Financial Plan” bumper sticker!) Brixey also recommends the help of a good financial planner. “You need to step outside your comfort zone and meet with someone,” she says. “Find someone who will be willing to work with you, talk with you, educate you and mentor you,”
Women are the boss more than ever.
Fortune magazine reports that in both 2008 and 2007, women ran 12 Fortune 500 companies; in 2006, they ran 10. Women are running smaller businesses, too. On a smaller scale, the Office of Economic Research Small Business Administration found in 2002 that women owned almost 30% of non-farm companies.
For inspiration on being your own boss: Bukow says she loves CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, (GE) which she says has lots of women guests who’ve started their own businesses who can be inspiring role models for women.
