We hear a lot of talk about men vs. women as investors, and we don’t have a shortage of perspectives, based on our years of working with women, helping them get smarter about money. In our experience, women view investing as a way to accomplish a goal, rather than as a game. In doing so women sidestep the seduction of accruing bragging rights. Moreover, even from the start, women are money smart. They often serve as the de facto family CFO, have budding or demanding careers, or gain valuable experience via volunteer work.
What tends to bog down the process – for men and women alike – is that the world of investing is filled with jargon and unnecessary complication. This is by design: for decades, the financial services industry has used complexity as a sales tool by framing investments as challenging instruments, then offering themselves as gatekeepers to those instruments.
Our message to you? Don’t let yourself become enticed by complexity. By keeping it simple and manageable we can stop procrastinating, make real progress, and achieve great investment results. One caveat: though a solution may be simple, it may not be easy. But attacking complex challenges with unnecessarily complex solutions will distract us, dilute our focus and even foster magical thinking. Simple may be difficult or it may be easy – but it is always going to lead to better financial outcomes.
