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Warren Buffett is warning against speculating in the stock market, what is gender lens investing, we're tracking Zoox (led by a black female CEO) and listen to our podcast with Her Capital
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Warren Buffett is warning against speculating in the stock market, what is gender lens investing, we're tracking Zoox (led by a black female CEO) and listen to our podcast with Her Capital

Weekly newsletter for women who want to be smart about money: financial news, personal finance and investing

Welcome to our #26 weekly newsletter in 2020.

Every week we curate key content and apply a female-lens so you can stay informed and inspired about money and investing.

Stay in the know.

Keep on top of global economic, financial and investing news and trends. And read about what this means for you and your money in 2020 during Covid-19 and beyond.

If you’re short on time, listen to the editorial on audio for a brief overview.

“Our mission is to help women take control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com


From The Purse…

Editorial from the Founder


According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week, the pandemic has triggered the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The global economy will contract by 4.9% this year and will take a ‘hit’ of $12 trillion. The UK’s economy is expected to shrink by 10.2% versus the 6.5% as projected.

And Christine Lagarde, President for the European Central Bank, has warned that “we need to be attentive to those likely to be affected more by the crisis: the poor in all countries, the poorest countries, young people and women”.

The UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has hinted at further economic stimulus but all eyes are on the economy reopening ‘safely’ on the 4 July.

Unemployment is expected to double from 4%, but business surveys all point to a V-shaped recovery.

Meanwhile high stock valuations continue despite the increase in Covid-19 cases and the uncertainty in the global economy: the global markets lost $1.2 trillion in market cap last week.

Warren Buffett and others have warned against speculating in the stock market. Day traders are buying stocks in distressed and bankrupt companies. Remember, investors don’t speculate.

Facebook’s share price plummeted as brands such as Unilever pulled their ad spend and Wirecard, the German payments card company filed for bankrupcy.

We Spotlight gender lens investing and why it makes good business sense.

Don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast with Gail Wong, the General Partner for Her Capital, a venture fund which invests with a gender lens. Or listen here.

We’re tracking Zoox, the self-driving startup led by a black female CEO, Aicha Evans which sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion.

Read how to become less anxious about your money and watch the TED talk: how to gain control of your free time.

Stay safe, look after yourself and your loved ones.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter. Until next week!

Jana

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The Big Picture

Global markets and economy news, trends and indicators


The Coronavirus Effect:

  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the global economy will take a $12trn hit from the pandemic and that the global economy will contract by 4.9%.

    • The pandemic has triggered the ‘worst recession since the Great Depression’ in the 1930s.

    • It is expected that it will take 2 years to recover to where the global economy was at the end of 2019. And if the second wave of the pandemic hits, global growth will go to zero.

    • The UK economy will shrink 10.2% in 2020 versus the projected 6.5%.

    • In a video posted on Linkedin, Christine Lagarde, President for the European Central Bank warned that: “we need to be attentive to those likely to be affected more by the crisis: the poor in all countries, the poorest countries, young people and women”.


Future focus

Keeping an eye on key predictions, innovations and what’s going to impact the future



Coronavirus Impact: Your Money

Insights, trends and what this means for you and your money



Companies to Watch: winners & losers

Companies to watch and share price movements


  • Facebook share price plummeted 7%, which is equal to $50bn of market cap as brands such as Unilever, Coca Cola, Verizon and Ben & Jerry’s pull ad spending from Facebook, citing hate speech, racist content and ‘dividing politics’.


In the Spotlight

Is there a topic you'd like us to Spotlight? Please tweet @jointhepurse


What is gender lens investing?

  • Did you know:

    • that greater gender diversity on boards is a predictor of long term shareholder value and lower stock price volatility.

    • female entrepreneurs generate higher revenue compared to men (more than twice as much per dollar invested)

    • the female consumer purchasing power exceeds the GDP of China and India combined.

    • but approximately only 3% of venture capital funding goes to female CEOs.

  • Gender-lens investing integrates gender-based factors into investment decisions with goals ranging from enhancing risk-adjusted returns to driving gender equality.

  • It is one of the most rapidly growing segments of sustainable investing. 

  • Asset growth in gender lens investing products accelerated and totalled $3.4 billion as of June 30, 2019.  They are growing in popularity with individuals and institutional investors.

  • An example of a gender lens product is The Future World Girl Fund introduced by Legal and General in 2018: a tracker fund which backs UK firms that have a greater gender balance.

  • And we are also seeing a rise in female-founded venture capital funds which focus on female founders only including Her Capital (who we interviewed this week), Backstage Capital, The Helm and Voulez Capital.

  • Also read this and this.


Have You Seen This?

Female-focused news, reports, research, campaigns


  • The coronavirus could cost working mothers £12,000 in retirement

    • Women already retire with a fifth of the pension wealth men do.

    • Mothers are more likely to have reduced their hours or lost their job due to the coronavirus which will impact the size of their pension even more.

  • Surprising study pinpoints why older women face a double whammy of age and sex discrimination at work (US white paper)

    • “These women are falling through the cracks. All my results consistently find that age discrimination laws were far less effective for older women compared with older men. In some cases, I found that age discrimination laws did not improve the labor market outcomes for older women at all.”

    • What’s the solution? …for laws to be applied jointly, as well as for future legislation to overtly acknowledge intersectional discrimination such as age-plus-sex discrimination.

    • But the first step is awareness and hire older women.


What We’re Tracking

Female-focused products or services, start-ups and businesses led by women, investment and research.



Money Habits of the Week

Do you have a money habit you would like to share with us? Tweet @jointhepurse


Spend some time looking into gender lens investing and what products are available.

Check out publicly traded equity gender lens funds and how they have performed compared to others.

And don’t forget to listen to our podcast with Gail Wong, the General Partner for Her Capital, the venture capital fund which invests with a gender lens.


What We’re Watching


  • Laura Vanderkam studies how busy people spend their lives and she’s discovered that many of us overestimate our commitments each week and underestimate the time for ourselves.

  • There are 168 hours in each week. How do we find time for what matters most? Watch this TED talk about how to gain control of your free time.


Coffee Break? Read This



We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

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