Women are doing it right

Traditionally, women avoid investing in the stock market. The latest ISA figures show that far more women hold an ISA than men – 900,000 more, to be precise. But women vastly prefer cash ISAS to stocks and shares ISAS. The government figures show that there are just 242,000 investment ISAS held by women compared with 3.6m cash ISAS. In contrast, 302,000 men have investment ISAS and just 2.8m have cash ISAS.

Yet, when women do invest, we are much better at it than men. Research by Hargreaves Lansdown found that female investors returned an average 0.81% more than men over a three-year period. Over a 30-year period, the average woman’s portfolio would be worth 25% more than the average man’s.

The main reason? We tend to invest our cash then leave it alone, whereas men are far more active traders, frequently adjusting their investment portfolios. They’ll pay more in trading fees and they could be buying and selling at the wrong moment, so they crystallise losses in investments that may have recovered if left alone.

‘Knowing how to weather an economic storm can be hard,’ says Kat. ‘When there is a short-term dip in the market, it can be tempting to tinker with your investments. While the majority of investors do nothing, we do see differences between how men and women approach investing. The truth is that women show the most responsible investor behaviour, with a natural tendency to stay the course and remain focused on their long-term goals.’