- Money Matters campaign expanded with launch of new website
- Offers women access to free events, podcast, articles and information to help them invest
- Analysis shows only 35% of younger stocks and shares ISA investors are women
- Figures show how investment gap hurts long-term wealth
AJ Bell is pleased to announce the expansion of its Money Matters campaign helping more women to invest. It comes as the campaign publishes new findings which show only 35% of young investors are women.
The new website dedicated to Money Matters, ajbellmoneymatters.co.uk, offers women with an interest in finance and investing the opportunity to sign-up to a community of like-minded women and access free events, a podcast, articles and information from a range of experts.
Founded in 2021, the Money Matters campaign is spearheaded by Baroness Helena Morrissey and aims to help more women gain the confidence to invest for the future. The launch of the new community will allow women across the UK to join and access the range of resources published through the campaign.
It comes as analysis of HMRC data by AJ Bell Money Matters shows that the gender investing gap is largest among young people, with only 35% of young stocks and shares ISA investors being women. This gender investment gap narrows as we get older, but never reaches parity, peaking at 46% of women aged 65 and over.
But putting money away in a savings account isn’t the hurdle, as more women actually open an ISA account, but they overwhelmingly stick to cash. The gender gap is reversed for cash ISAs, with women making up around 56% of all cash ISA savers.
Sticking to cash has a big impact on long-term wealth, when compared to investing. If someone saved the average ISA contribution of £8,690 a year in a cash account earning the average long-term return for cash ISAs* of 1.13% they would have almost £92,500 after 10 years. However, if they had invested that same contribution each year, earning 5% return a year, they would have almost £115,000 – more than £22,000 more. Over 20 years the gap widens to almost £106,000.
Source: AJ Bell Money Matters/HMRC. Based on the most recent ISA contributions data for 2020/21
Source: AJ Bell Money Matters/HMRC. Based on the most recent ISA contributions data for 2020/21
Baroness Helena Morrissey, founding ambassador of Money Matters, comments:
“There isn’t a single good reason why men should have more money than women, whether that’s in savings, investments or their pension. Money Matters by AJ Bell is aiming to tackle the taboo topic of talking about money and shed light on all the various factors that mean women are less likely to invest – from the gender pay gap to the financial fallout of having children through to the impact menopause has on our money.
“We want women to be armed with all the information and inspiration to take action with their money, whether that’s saving more, engaging with their pension or starting to invest. The new website collates all this information into one place, as well as giving people the ability to sign up to our newsletter, to receive their monthly dose of investing inspiration.”
*Based on BoE figures for cash ISA accounts to January 2011, which is the start of the data.
