This is How Many Female Investors Got Started During the Pandemic

According to a survey, 42% of women investors say they only began investing during the pandemic.

Roughly two in five current female investors took the plunge either in 2020 or 2021, the recent survey shows.

Half of those surveyed by social investing app eToro also said they are holding on to their investments for at least six years.

Half of all women said they have become more interested in investing during the pandemic, a separate research from Fidelity Investments shows.

Fidelity has also found that 67% of women are now investing outside of their retirement savings, up from 44% in 2018.

“People had more time to learn what investing means,” remarked Callie Cox, U.S. analyst at eToro. “We were all talking about it … so this helped women feel more comfortable to step in and invest.”

According to Cox, generally speaking, women were disproportionately impacted by job losses early in the pandemic, as well as by caregiving responsibilities and challenges finding child care that would allow them to return to work. The resulting financial hit to their household income may have translated into a bigger need to focus more on money matters.

“They were in a corner and kind of had to take control of their finances,” Cox said.

Investors also want to consider why they are investing and why they are buying what they are buying.

“You want to think about why you are investing,” said Haley Tolitsky, a certified financial planner at Cooke Capital in Wilmington, North Carolina.

“Think about what your goals are and why you’re putting your money where you are.”

“The shorter your time frame, the more conservative you want to be,” Tolitsky added. “You probably don’t want to be 100% in equities if you’re investing for less than 10 years.”

“The S&P 500 index’s annualized return is about 8% to 9%, but that’s over a long time horizon, not a few years,” Tolitsky continued. “In the meantime, ask yourself if you can sleep at night knowing your money is fluctuating. If the answer is no, you probably need to cut back on risky assets.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.