RBS boss, Alison Rose, commits £1bn funding for female entrepreneurs, women invest more in their ISAs than their pension and it's costing them £300K, check out our app of the week.
Weekly newsletter for women who want to be smart about money: financial news, personal finance and investing
Welcome to our #4 weekly newsletter in 2020.
Every week we curate key articles and content so you can stay informed and inspired about money and investing without the boring bits!
This is your weekly go-to place to read up on all things money-related.
We spend hours sifting through content every week and apply a female-lens to news and content about money so that it is meaningful to you.
Ultimately we want to support you in making well-informed financial decisions, grow your net worth and ensure your financial security.
From The Purse…
Editorial from the Founder
Cherie Blair and Alison Rose, CEO of RBS, announced £10m and £1bn investments respectively in support of women entrepreneurs and their start-ups this week.
A report by Deloitte has indicated that women entrepreneurs can add over £100bn to the UK economy over the next 10 years. And yet women founders in the UK receive less than 1p for every £1 of investment vs 89p which goes to their male peers and the rest goes to mixed gender founders.
This is fairly shocking if we consider that women represent the largest market opportunity globally and female consumer purchasing power exceeds the GDP of China and India combined.
A new generation of women are stepping into entrepreneurship and the data shows that not only do their businesses generate higher revenue (more than twice as much per dollar invested compared to men), they are building new markets with a positive net effect on society.
Consider the report that was published on the women’s digital health technology market: it will hit $297 million (£227m) in 2024. And it will be one of the largest addressable markets in digital health.
Women who invest are in a strong position to take advantage of these largely ignored markets because we understand the pain point and the need.
No need to educate us on why we need better breast pumps, eco-friendly and organic tampons or why renting your clothes is a good idea!
Nor do we need convincing about why it pays to build companies that care about climate change, are sustainable and have a positive impact.
But as women we need to be ready, so we have the funds to invest, we know where it makes sense to invest and what the best way to do it is.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter. Until next week!
Jana
The Big Picture
Global markets and economy news, trends and indicators
UK is set to leave the EU on 31 January after the Brexit bill was passed on Wednesday. It is currently not clear what will happen to the exchange rate (pound to euro). It is estimated that the economic cost of Brexit can be as high as £200bn by the end of 2020.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) took place in Davos (21-24 January) where the theme for 2020 was: ‘Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World’. Key announcements include:
The Guggenheim Partners investment chief, Scott Minerd, likened the continuing rise in asset prices to a ‘ponzi scheme’ which must collapse. He wrote in a letter to the World Economic Forum: “We will reach a tipping point when investors will awake to the rising tide of defaults and downgrades…The timing is hard to predict, but this reminds me a lot of the lead-up to the 2001 and 2002 recession.”
Anna Walsh, who is responsible for fixed income investments at Guggenheim Partners, has said: ‘It is a time of volatility for financial markets and investors will need to patiently pick their way through this year if they are to be rewarded’. She went on to say: “The next cycle will probably look like the early-2000s which was a corporate debt default cycle.”
Oxfam released a new report on global inequality which states that: men collectively own 50 % more wealth than women do, and at the top of that wealth gap, ‘the richest 22 men in the world own more wealth than all the women in Africa’.
Cherie Blair launched a £10m mentoring campaign to support 100,000 female entrepreneurs.
WEF announced the first global consortium focused on designing a framework for the governance of digital currencies, including stablecoins.
Looking Ahead in 2020
What does 2020 have in store for investors? (Vanguard UK)
The risk of adverse market volatility is high, which is why it is important that investments are diversified and aligned with long-term goals.
Spreading your risks can help protect from unexpected challenges which is common in investment markets. The below diagram illustrates how UK shares performed relative to shares in the developed markets.
Therefore being globally diversified across markets can improve long-term performance.
It is also why balancing a share portfolio with high-quality government bonds can add protection during market volatility.
(Disclaimer: we do not provide financial advice. Please talk to your financial advisor to discuss your financial situation).
Have You Seen This?
Female-focused news, reports, research, campaigns
Bloomberg 2020 Gender Equality Index expands to (GEI) 325 global firms:
"The GEI measures gender equality across five pillars: female leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand."
According to the findings from this year’s index, companies led by a female CEO reported having more women in senior management positions than companies with a male CEO.
78% evaluate their marketing materials for bias, up from 68% last year. Further, nearly half (46%) of the firms measure retention of female customers, and 57% track customer satisfaction by gender where applicable.
Specifically, 39% of firms in the GEI have public targets to increase female leadership, while 16% have announced public plans on how they plan to close the pay wage gap.
According to data from stock broker Interactive Investor, women who do invest-often more successfully than men – tend to put money into an Isa rather than a pension. This means that women are potentially missing out on more than £300,000 over the course of their career.
(Source: The Telegraph)
What We’re Tracking
Female-focused products or services, crowdfunding campaigns, start-ups led by female entrepreneurs & investment, research.
The global market for women’s digital health technology will hit $297 million (£227m) in 2024. According to the report, it will be one of the largest addressable markets in digital health.
RBS boss, Alison Rose, commits £1bn funding for female entrepreneurs.
Fledglink (UK)- set up by founder Ellie Yell, the app is aimed at young people and ‘gets you prepared for life after education, helps you make better decisions and then lands you the ideal job’.
Ellie Yell is also the recent winner of the Tech100Women award. Well done Ellie!
Money Habits of the Week
Do you have a money habit you would like to share with us? Tweet @jointhepurse
Investors are familiar with the mantra: it’s about time in the market not the timing of the market.
One of the reasons women are regarded as better investors than men is because they buy and hold their investments. They also tend to spend more time researching their investments before they buy.
We can not predict when markets will go up and down; when there will be an unexpected event and how people will respond.
For this reason, it is better to invest consistently and over the long term.
Caught Our Eye
New digital tools and cool stuff for managing your money
Insurance has not always been straightforward to sort out and we know how easy it is to put it off.
We came across this mobile app called Anorak which offers three types of cover: life insurance, critical illness and income protection.
According to the co-founder/CEO David Vanek-the startup’s mission is to build the world’s “smartest” automated life insurance advice platform at the ‘most appropriate time and place in a person’s life’.
We’re Applauding
Female role model in politics, finance, business, money, or investment
We’re big fans of Cindy Gallop: an advertising executive, the founder of MakeLoveNotPorn, who is launching a $200m sextech fund for start-ups, a change-maker, known for making waves in business and society at large.
“My personal philosophy is never waste your time banging your head against closed doors,” explains Gallop. “Instead, engineer yourself into a position where doors open automatically as you approach.”
“Design the world that we want to live in. Because when we do that, the men will desperately want to be a part of that as well.”
Her recent podcast interview on Soundcloud is here:
What We’re Watching
Generation Wealth (2018), is a documentary about the ‘global boom-bust economy, the corrupted American dream and the human cost of late stage capitalism, narcissism and greed’.
What We’re Reading
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing is written by mutual fund pioneer John C. Bogle and founder of Vanguard Group, where he reveals the key to getting more out of investing: low-cost index funds.
Bogle describes the simplest and most effective investment strategy for building wealth over the long term: buy and hold, at very low cost, a mutual fund that tracks a broad stock market Index such as the S&P 500 (or the FTSE 100).
Coffee Break? Read This
8m women in the UK dream of turning their side hustle in to a full-time career
Women don’t consult financial advisors when they get divorced and they should
We’d love to hear from you. Do you have feedback? Have we missed anything? What would you like to see more of? Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.
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