The only way to be financially independent is through gaining financial literacy. One can start with reading small articles that are easy to understand and give you the right amount of knowledge to get you started with investing. Good that you are at the right place at the right time, as we at FIKAA aim to make women independent by inculcating them with needed financial literacy.

#Myth3: Women are not confident with their finances
Women have historically lacked the confidence to start investing or investing larger amounts. According to a Merrill Lynch and Age Wave research, just 52 percent of women, compared to 68 percent of men, feel secure handling their money. Although they are less confident they have proved to be more efficient investors than male investors.

Another study, backed by Barclays and conducted by Warwick Business School, found that female investors outperformed male investors by 1.2 percent.

Confidence comes with experience and age. Great investors say that you’ll become more confident only after you have experienced losses. So the only way to become financially more confident is to be consistent and keep learning on the journey.

#Myth4: Women are conservative investors
To some extent, a moderate fear of risk is good. Women are more likely to invest their savings into long-term investments. Wells Fargo finds that only 4% of women take a good deal of risk in their portfolios.

Investing for the long-term comes with its benefits like reducing risk over the years and reaping higher returns. So women being risk-averse investors do them good by bringing risk-reward balance into their portfolio.

As women & their investments mature in age, and as they see their money grow, they become more and more confident to take larger risks. It is not necessary that you need to take a big risk in order to earn higher returns so one should take risks as per one’s risk appetite.

For too long, women have been portrayed as frivolous spenders and incompetent with finance; but the times are changing and so is today’s woman. Nothing in this world is limited to men only anymore. The number of women in the finance field is expanding. Gone are the days when women depended on their male partners, today’s women are much more capable of handling their own as well as their family’s finances

Myths about women and finance may or may not be true, but one thing is sure - through financial literacy they can overcome this stigma.

The first step toward financial literacy is to have a savings account in any bank and know all about banking services to make the most of it. Then start gathering knowledge about investing through videos, articles, and simple books about finance. And lastly, to actually start investing. It is not compulsory that you must have a degree in finance or high-end knowledge about investing. Many investing apps help you and one such app is - FIKAA; where even if you don’t know the basics of investing, we have got you covered. We run an AI which finds investment options that suit your individual risk-reward appetite.

Let’s FIKAA and learn together to be strong financially independent women that are the future and also help shape your future.