[Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are for informational purposes only and not intended as financial advice. If you have any questions as to the merits of an investment, you should seek advice from an independent professional financial advisor.]
OVER THE LAST eight years, I’ve spent a lot of time focused on funding women entrepreneurs and women-led venture funds. I’ve learned a lot about the challenges and, more importantly, the vast opportunities to build our own wealth to further our goals and empower more women to do the same.
It can be hard to think about the concept of “wealth” when we are going to work every day, and trying to support our families and ourselves. Especially for women, building our personal wealth may have taken a back seat to raising a family, building a career, and being caregivers to our parents or other loved ones.
But wealth can take many forms. We can create wealth by:
1) Investing in ourselves (e.g., education, job, health)
2) Establishing savings
3) Starting a business
4) Buying a home
5) Building equity through investing
Given that we at GingerBread Capital spend our livelihood investing in women, we are often asked by women about how they can become better investors themselves. Among the most common questions we hear are:
I have money in savings, but I don’t have experience investing. Where do I start?
My husband and/or partner “handles the money” and I’m not part of the conversation. How do I learn more?
Our wealth advisor only talks to my husband about our asset allocation and account performance; I usually just handle the paperwork. How can I get more involved in our investment decisions?
I’ve invested some for years. What else should I be doing?
I’m tired of listening to the guys talk about how much money they’re making. What else should I be doing?
Building your wealth needs to be an active conversation. And it’s never too late to start that conversation. But if you’re not having it now, you need to start it. And take action.
In the words of our friend Sallie Krawcheck, Founder & CEO of Ellevest:
