Books on finance seem to be an evergreen source of advice and wisdom. About one in every five households reported relying on media including books for information to guide their financial actions and decisions. Yet, when one wades through the huge number of books on money whether they are targeted at women or not, it’s hard to find the few that stand out by taking a truly innovative and effective approach to an admittedly complex and intimidating topic.

Continue reading “Green Shoots of Hope: 5 Great Books for Women on Money”

 

Here’s a pop quiz: Did you ask a friend or family member the last time you were pondering a financial decision? Why or why not? And if you did, did you actually take their advice?

The field of sociology is not one we immediately connect with the world of hard numbers, money and finance. Yet, it feels intuitive and natural that friends and family must have some bearing on an individual’s financial and particularly investment and savings activities. But how to get an objective view? And more importantly, what does that objective view imply for specific groups or segments, such as women, for example?

Continue reading “On Friends, Family and Finances”

 

When looking at the problem of how to cross the seeming chasm of getting women to enter the arena of investing, the first ideas that come to mind are those to do with making investing simpler, easier or less intimidating.  Rarely is much thought given to what might appeal to already strong desires and drives that women have, and even less to existing products and ideas that might elegantly leverage this interest and energy to create better on-ramps for women to initiate investing activities.

There is one area of very low-hanging fruit that meets all these criteria – and puzzlingly remains highly under-utilized: the area of impact investing.

Continue reading “Getting Women to Invest : Low-hanging Fruit”