Let me tell you about the day I accidentally became a “financial pick-me girl” 🥤. Picture this: My boyfriend of 3 years casually said, “Don’t worry about the stock market, babe – it’s too complicated.” Meanwhile, I’d just discovered that the $5 daily oat milk lattes I’d been buying for us (🤡) could’ve grown to $12,000 in a basic index fund over a decade. Cue my internal scream.
Here’s the tea ☕: Women consistently outperform men in investing by 0.4%-1.8% annually (hello, 2023 Warwick Business School study!), yet we’re 30% less likely to own stocks. Why? We’ve been conditioned to see money as “grown-up homework” while men treat it like a video game they’re born knowing how to play.
I started small:
1️⃣ The $20 Rebellion – Instead of buying another fast fashion top, I used a micro-investing app to buy fractional shares of the S&P 500. Turns out, compound interest is quieter than my vibrator but WAY more satisfying long-term.
2️⃣ The Ex-Boyfriend Portfolio – Calculated how much I’d spent subsidizing dates/His laundry detergent. That $3,200 became my emergency fund’s spicy origin story.
3️⃣ The “Oh Sht” Jar – Automated 5% of every paycheck into crypto (not the Elon Musk meme coins – actual blockchain projects). Even if it crashes, it’s cheaper than therapy for my financial anxiety.
Here’s what nobody tells you: Women’s “weaknesses” are secret investing superpowers. Our tendency to research thoroughly? That’s why we hold investments 18% longer than men (Vanguard data). Our “risk aversion”? Saved us from losing 50% in GameStop frenzies.
My wake-up call came when my grandma revealed she’d quietly turned her 1980s teacher pension into $1.2M through dividend stocks. “Men spend, women build,” she winked. Now I’m obsessed with REITs that fund women-led startups – getting rich while literally funding the feminist revolution? Sign me up.
Final thought: Financial independence isn’t about becoming a Wolf of Wall Street bro. It’s about buying yourself the freedom to say “fck off” to bad relationships, toxic jobs, or society’s timeline pressures. Start today with whatever you’ve got – even $10 in a robo-advisor. Your future self will high-five you through time. 💪