Women Make Great Investors

Melissa Walsh featured on Sound Dollar

In a recent article published on the Investing page of Sound Dollar, Melissa Walsh was interviewed about the difference between men and women as investors. Melissa's comments corrected the common mischaracterization in the financial services industry that women are more risk-averse than men.

In fact, many women are comfortable taking investment risks once they have a plan in place for their near-term needs.

Her full comments are included in the article expert below:

"Taking appropriate risks is key

There’s a nagging mischaracterization in the financial service world that women are risk-averse investors. Melissa Walsh, a CFP whose firm, Clarity Financial Design, specializes in planning for women, says that “while many women initially appear to be more conservative,” that’s typically a temporary state. Once Walsh helps them craft a plan that addresses the need for safe savings for emergencies, she says women are then plenty willing to take more risk to meet their longer-term goals. “She is typically comfortable knowing that there will be market volatility and price changes in her long-term investments because she knows she has a plan to meet her near-term goals with more conservative investments, and a plan for meeting her longer-term goals with more aggressive investments,” says Walsh. That’s what Vanguard found a few years ago when it looked at the risk level of investment portfolios among their retail clients. They deemed the gender difference “negligible.”[6] If you’re not sure how to plan/save/invest for both short-term needs and long-term goals, there’s help available for that."

Read the whole article at Sound Dollar.