What’s unique about women and investing?
Megumi | Today, I’m talking about women and investing with Rabiya. She is one of the founders of HerCapital, an organization that empowers women to invest in their future, and currently works at Goldman Sachs. She’s previously conducted health policy and systems research at the World Health Organization in Geneva, and did field work for the Polio Eradication Initiative in Pakistan, her home country, along with so many other mentoring and educational work that she has done for women. I’m super excited to have you here. Thank you so much for being here, Rabiya! |
Rabiya | Thank you for having me. It is so nice to be here. |
Megumi | This is something I’m asking all of my guests. What is the best and worst thing that you spent money on last year in 2020, or so far in 2021? |
Rabiya | I love that question. And if you had asked me this in 2019, I would have been very surprised that this would be my answer. But the thing, the best purchase that I’ve made in 2020 would have to be my work from home set up, because I feel like I have spent so much time in front of the screen. And with the whole work from home environment, having a good work from home set up has been a game-changer. I think it’s allowed me to be more productive and be happier about working from home. So really, in hindsight, I am very happy. My husband convinced me to not be frugal and spend on it because I’ve used it a lot. So that would be my best purchase. |
Megumi | That’s a good one. |
Rabiya | Thank you. And I think the worst purchase would probably be a vacation that I had spent on that I got some refund for, but not for the whole thing. We had planned a trip in, I would say, it was probably early March of 2020. And I had probably bought the tickets and planned it in December. So, that was probably the worst purchase that I was not able to use and take advantage of. |
Megumi | That sucks. Where were you going to go? |
Rabiya | Paris. |
Megumi | Ugh! |
Rabiya | For my birthday, for my birthday! |
Megumi | Oh no! [laughter] |
Rabiya | I was extremely excited for the trip. But I feel like a lot of people could probably relate to that because a lot of planners like to buy tickets in advance. And I, being a Pakistani, have to apply for a visa for pretty much everywhere I go. And so, I had to buy a lot of the tickets and the bookings, etc. Luckily, most of it was refundable, but it made me sad. So that would be the worst one. |
Megumi | Yeah. Oh, I’m so sorry. Well, hopefully, you’ll get to– I don’t know, go this year [laughter] or next year. |
Rabiya | I think, in hindsight, we put so much– I used to put a lot of importance on planning things and traveling. But in hindsight sometimes, even for a time off, if you stay at home and really just enjoy the moment, it’s fun and it’s refreshing. And I think that was probably the positive spin on it was, this was my first birthday that I wasn’t planning to leave my home and go somewhere, like a trip. And it was nice. It was nice to be home. I got to spend it with my husband. And so I’m very grateful for that. |
Megumi | That’s awesome, a little staycation. |
Rabiya | Exactly. Exactly. I mean, this has been one long staycation [laughter]. But I’m grateful for health and for all our loved ones to be safe and comfortable. So, I think that’s more important than the things that we used to put a lot of importance on. |
Megumi | Yeah, for sure. So going back a little bit, what first sparked your interest in finance and investing? |
Rabiya | Good question. As you mentioned, I grew up in Pakistan. And I always enjoyed math, and I had a bit of a quantitative brain in some ways. And when I was in college, I studied applied math and computer science. I enjoyed that, but I was very interested in health policy. And you mentioned this when you were introducing me, but I worked on the polio eradication initiative in Pakistan. I had done some social work and volunteered for schools and education for women when I was back home. I continued a lot of that in college, and I worked for the World Health Organization as well when I was in college. So that was really the path that I was on. And I kind of stumbled upon finance, honestly, through professors and peers that were studying the same things that I was studying. And Pakistan’s financial markets are obviously not as advanced as the US, and so it wasn’t an industry that I was exposed to growing up. And my parents were much more focused on education and business than they were on finance, so I didn’t grow up understanding what the stock market was or really even knowing about it. |
(cont.) | And so really, I was exposed to it in college through peers who were studying math – applied math, specifically – and computer science technology. So that was how I became aware of it. And then I remember thinking– I did some calculus in my head and decided that I should at least intern for one of these banks and see what the hype is about. I just wanted to test it out. And then, surprisingly, kind of fell in love with the trading floor and the energy and the buzz. And the focus on the markets was really interesting to me, and I was very surprised by my own interest in something that I had never been exposed to before. So that’s how it started, from an internship that I just did to test it out and to see what it was about. And I think probably because I’m just a curious person, I wanted to learn more about it and so that led me to be on a trading floor and learn about the markets. And then I think if you like it and if it’s something that you develop a taste for, then you want to get better at it. And so, it becomes kind of a self-fulfilling thing. So that was how I ended up in a markets role. |
Megumi | Got it. Okay. Really quickly, what is applied math? Is it different from normal math? |
Rabiya | Yes. So, math– [laughter] So when you do pure math– and this is my college. I think everyone does it a little bit differently. But applied math, typically, is math with a focus on applications. So, you are studying math, but maybe you’re modeling, or maybe you’re coding to create something that uses mathematical formulas, but for a real-life problem– to solve that problem. It’s a little bit more applicable than theoretical math, at least in the near term. And I think that’s what I liked about it was that it allowed me to take math classes while taking classes in things like accounting and finance and computer science and economics. It’s a way to take math, but then diversify to other subjects as well. |
Megumi | Got it. And this is a question from someone who just hates numbers and cannot do math. Do you need to be good at math? Do you need to be an applied math major at Harvard in order to be able to invest and be at least decent with money management? |
Rabiya | Not at all. And I honestly think the two are not related at all. And it’s a misnomer. I think this goes back to the– people have created, historically, barriers for entry to certain industries or certain disciplines for women. And I was reading a very interesting paper on this. If you think about it, women were denied access to wealth for a long time, right? We couldn’t inherit, no one could gift us wealth, and women were almost treated like property and didn’t have many rights. And what that did I think – if you think about history and how that manifested – is women were kept out of financial conversations because they quite literally couldn’t make financial decisions or own any wealth. And so, I think what that did was keep us out of conversations to the point where it became socialized that women were not good at certain things, but it was more a function of us just not having the right or not having the power to be in the room and have a conversation or make a decision. If you look at the numbers, I mean, women invest much less than men. Women invest 40% less than men on average. But if you look at the returns– and there was a study done around the financial crisis, and they found that women on average had 4-7% better returns than men when they did invest. And I think that goes back to: women like to study more. And these are all generalizations, but just based on statistics, women typically will work harder or study more before they take action and are oftentimes a little bit more risk averse. So, maybe they’re making more rational decisions than the average man is. And all of those are actually very good habits from a personal finance and financial independence perspective: being organized, being detail oriented, being studious to some degree, doing your research, not being impulsive. A lot of those things we are already trained by society to have and so when we do start investing, it’s a lot about behavior and trends and control than it is about math or science. It’s really not. |
Megumi | So, you’re saying that women are not too emotional to invest? |
Rabiya | I think so. And I honestly think women– I mean, I may be biased, but I think women are the smarter of the two genders. And if you look at most households – I was reading an article about this – but in most households, women make most of the decisions, and women often take the role of the planner. But they defer financial decisions to their male counterparts. And that is almost counterproductive because if the woman is budgeting and if the woman is responsible for the groceries and the planning and the etc., they are actually closer to the finances than they think. But again, there’s this idea that you need to be good at math and you need to be day trading stocks to be good at investing. It’s very different from that, and it’s actually a completely different discipline and a completely different practice. And it’s much more like planning and goal setting, which a lot of women like to do. |
Megumi | Right. It reminds me what you were saying about the mental labor, right, the unpaid labor, the mental labor, emotional labor, stuff that we as women hear a lot about. And women on average do two hours more domestic labor, unpaid labor, than men typically do, which adds up to something like five months per year of unpaid labor that they’re doing. And it all comes down to project management. Right? It’s like project managing the house. You are starting to cook dinner. You realize that you’re short on whatever ingredients, so you mentally put it on the grocery list. And then you start doing laundry, oh, we’re low on this thing, or we need to get this and that. And then you go to the store, you buy all the things while you’re also planning childcare and setting up play dates and so on and so forth. So that makes sense that women, as the project manager of the house, should be more involved with the financial decisions that are being made, not just kind of executing on a financial decision that someone else has made. |
Rabiya | Exactly. And I think to your point, structurally, the way most households are set up, [women] are already taking on a lot more of that burden than they realize and thereby gaining a lot more insight into the workings of the home or of the family or whatever want to call it than the man does in an average household, to your point. And so, you may be actually better disposed at making smarter decisions when it comes to finances because you are closer to a lot of these day-to-day planning-type project managing things that women are doing on average. |
Megumi | Yeah, that makes total sense. We heard it here. Women are smarter and we need to be making more decisions [laughter]. |
Rabiya | Absolutely. |
Megumi | You talked about how you got from math and sort of policy going into finance. What ultimately led to the creation of HerCapital? |
Rabiya | I’m lucky to have a very supportive family and now an extremely supportive husband, and I’d grown up in a very encouraging and inspiring environment and got a lot of that in college as well. So, I was lucky in that way. I think when I started working full time was my first taste of noticing kind of subtle differences between how women and men were conducting themselves or between how women and men were sometimes being treated. And there’s a lot that’s written about inequality in the workplace and inequality in particular professions. And there’s been a lot of spotlight on finance when it comes to the pay gap. And people have written a lot about the gender wealth gap as well, which is, again, like I mentioned, is a function of kind of historically women being kept away from owning wealth and inheriting wealth. You become much more aware of those conversations and those discussions when you experience them yourselves. And so, working on a trading floor in the financial services sector, that was the first time that I started becoming more aware of subtle differences in how my male colleagues were conducting themselves versus the women, how I was acting and in certain instances. And I had never– as a student, you don’t have to necessarily deal with that. And so it forced me to read more about it and think more about it. And I think being in finance, I was extremely comfortable in my day job and felt fairly competent helping institutional clients invest. That’s what I do for a living. And I was talking to CIOs or talking to large endowments and helping them structure pretty complicated investments. But when I would compare myself to my colleagues who had maybe simpler day jobs in terms of financial structuring or the industry itself, but felt so much more confident when they talked about their own personal accounts and their own personal investing endeavors, I started noticing a difference in just how I was thinking about it in my head. And in talking to my co-founder, who was also in finance but on the private side, she was experiencing the same thing, where she was very competent at her day job and felt very comfortable investing and looking at companies. But she felt extremely shy and under-confident when it came to investing for herself. But her male peers were at par with her in the day job, but much more confident outside talking about investments in finance. And so, we started talking about it with each other and then started talking to our peers and realized that there was a trend here. A lot of us felt pretty comfortable and confident in our own mental capabilities and our ability to learn. So that wasn’t the problem. But when it came to talking about money and personal finance and financial independence and investing, we wish we felt confident, we felt shy and we didn’t really have regular normal conversations like the men were having. So that’s how the idea came up was, hey, but the guys at work are talking about what stock they’re going to buy. And that’s like lunchtime conversation and we’re there, but we’re not partaking in the conversation. And even when we’re not there and when we’re with our girlfriends, we’re not talking about this stuff. And in addition to things like the wealth gap and the pay gap and the inequality there, by not investing, we are perpetuating and widening that gap. If you look at the research, the amount of pay discrepancies don’t account for the full wealth gap that exists between men and women. And that difference can be accounted for by the fact that we just keep our money in cash and we don’t necessarily invest it wisely. And if you look at the numbers, women on average keep 71% of our assets in cash. |
Megumi | Wow. |
Rabiya | And all of that money is depreciating year after year because you’re not investing it. And men are investing 40% more than women on average. So even if we were getting paid the same amount by investing 40% less, we are making sure that we remain behind in terms of wealth and financial independence. |
Megumi | Right. You miss out on that compound interest, that ability to grow your wealth and you fall behind if you keep it in cash because you’re just simply not keeping up with inflation either. |
Rabiya | Exactly, exactly. And the compounding aspect of it is so important because a lot of women, because we don’t talk about this, get started later. If you start investing when you’re 18 or 20 and invest a smaller amount of money and have lower returns, the end amount that you accumulate at the end – whenever you want to retire – by most metrics would probably be higher than someone who starts investing 10 years later, invests more money and earns a higher return. And that’s good. That’s the power and the magic of compounding, is we like to say you have to maximize your time in the market. Very few people are successful in timing the market and buying low and selling high. That’s very hard to do. So the average investor, the longer you remain invested and the earlier you start, even if it’s a smaller amount, the better off you will be in the long term. |
Megumi | Right. It’s more important to just have time in the market versus timing the market. |
Rabiya | Exactly. Absolutely. And that’s why we are targeting women on college campuses and targeting women that have just started working because it’s– the idea is even if you have an allowance or you’re getting a small stipend, you must budget. You must build these habits of financial management and planning and goals around your money so that you are not struggling when you’re 35 or when you’re 40 and you have very little time left to take advantage of compounding. |
Megumi | Right. Especially because it’s something that, like you said, we don’t talk about and we don’t get educated on in school pretty much. |
Rabiya | Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. |
Megumi | We talked a little bit about some of the barriers for women, specifically in investing. Are there other things that are preventing or keeping women from investing? Making them more hesitant to invest or just more – I don’t want to say ignorant – but just not aware of the importance of them I’d say. |
Rabiya | Yeah, I mean, I think that we talked a little bit about the kind of the historical context for why potentially. And we talked about the societal aspect of it, where women are maybe not– it’s not something that’s spoken to them about. They’re not spoken to about it when they are younger and a lot of men are encouraged to invest or their friends are talking about it. So, there’s definitely a social aspect of it. And there is, again, the fact that we are disproportionately in industries that are further away from markets. I think that makes a difference, too. So, the number of women that are in service-based industries and in education is much higher than the women that are in the financial services sector, where you are naturally closer to these questions and you feel much more comfortable in your ability to understand some of these terms. So those things exist. But I think taking a step back, even when women understand the problem and want to learn more and want to act on what they have learned in terms of the gender investing gap and what they can gain by investing, there is a severe lack of suitable resources for women, in my opinion. And that is one of the key reasons why we created HerCapital in the way that we did. |
There was a study done by, I believe it was BlackRock, and recently published, where they said that I think more than 65% of women find the existing financial education resources online extremely difficult to understand. And I’ve experienced this personally where I was reading about the markets and learning about the markets from my day job, but I didn’t particularly find the online resources about personal finance appealing. And a lot of them had a lot of jargon that was difficult to understand, even for someone that was working in the industry. And so, if you think about the fact that a lot of women are in education and in hospitality, etc., it must be harder because you just naturally don’t understand some of the jargon that is being used. And I think one of the key barriers, in my opinion, is a lack of resources that are appealing and understandable. And a lot of these forums and discussion areas are actually exclusionary to women and feel not inviting to a lot of women. And that’s something that we’ve tried to change with HerCapital. | |
(cont.) | We are in our [target] demographic and our team was also in the same age range and the demographic that we were targeting, we realized that a lot of us spend our time on Instagram, for example, and our social media channels. And a lot of us derive relaxation and joy from things that are aesthetically pleasing and lighthearted and that is fun for us, for whatever reason. And so, we wanted to create resources that were not additional work for women but were a part of their day-to-day unwinding. They would be learning this stuff alongside when they’re looking up travel resources or they’re thinking about lifestyle decisions or they’re looking at different skincare or health care tips on the Internet. This would be one of those fun but educational tidbits of information that they can access. That’s really how we started, was targeting women and creating resources that are inviting, fun, comforting and really distilling some of these complicated terms and in my opinion, unnecessarily complicated terms to what they actually mean and to give women the confidence that they’re actually very simple. And if you kind of peel the layers off of the jargon, it’s extremely basic concepts that are being talked about. |
We focused on our Instagram to start with bite-sized content, that’s fun and empowering tidbits of information. And then we extended that same kind of brand to our website, where we have online resources for women, things as basic as budgeting, and then we go through from budgeting and goal setting all the way to understanding financial statements and looking at companies and better evaluating financial decisions. It’s almost like a curriculum on our website, but it’s presented in a fun– I hope, in a fun and engaging way that is inviting to women and is more in their aesthetic and their style. | |
Megumi | Right. Yeah, I feel like a lot of the– like you are saying, the resources out there, even if they’re not purposely trying to exclude women, just the intimidation factor of all the jargon. I remember when I was first trying to learn more about money, whether it was personal finance or investing, it was exhausting just to go on one website realize, “Okay, I don’t know this term, so now I have to look up that term. And within that definition, there’s something else I don’t know.” And then I have so many tabs open as I am trying to, for some reason, understand what seems to be really simple, but is getting covered in lots of jargon. And I can imagine that so many people would either not have the time or don’t care enough or have the energy or just be like, “Oh, I’ll do this later.” And going back to what you are saying, you can do this later, but we need to start now. |
Rabiya | Yeah. |
Megumi | We have to start now so we don’t have time to leave it off forever. |
Rabiya | Exactly. And the time is so precious when it comes to investing because, like I said, it’s so much about building good habits and being consistent, much more so than making one amazing bet and winning. You shouldn’t be trying to win the lottery. You should be planning for a stable and safe future. And that is much more attainable for everyone. The timing market side is much harder to do and much harder to win at, I think. |
Megumi | Right. Even though the headlines make it seem more exciting and it’s more fun to talk about and read about it on Twitter and whatnot, but ultimately, significantly more stressful too. |
Rabiya | Yeah. And I think there’s a space for that, right? If you do some things for fun and if you enjoy it and if you can be safe about it, by all means, do it. But I think that should be a complement to what you are doing from a longer-term financial planning perspective. It should by no means be a replacement. |
Megumi | Right. |
Rabiya | So really the important thing here is day trading and understanding the markets and understanding specific stocks. If you can do that, that’s amazing. But the more attainable and more basic thing or step one before that is planning for your future, making sure you’re secure, having an emergency fund, having long-term investments that you can rely on. Those things come before you go to step 10, which is what’s in the news. |
Megumi | In terms of long-term planning, I know one of the reasons why it’s especially important for women to invest is that we live longer, right? Are there other reasons that are more unique about investing as a woman? |
Rabiya | I think the living longer is definitely important. I think you touched upon this when we were chatting, but women, unfortunately, or fortunately, the way society is structured often get more responsibilities when it comes to childcare and can have– I was looking at a study, but oftentimes women have more responsibilities for family as well, like for parents and grandparents. I actually don’t know why that is, but it’s just how– it’s just what the statistics tell us. |
Megumi | Just the overall caretaker for everybody. |
Rabiya | Yeah, that’s the role that we have kind of morphed into, I guess, over time. But I think that that’s part of it as well. And then I think, to your point, we’ve talked about this before, but not only do we live longer, we also get paid less on average. And so, whether it be a function of the industries that are dominated by women or if it’s a function of– even in the same industry, there’s proof that women often get paid less. We do not ask for raises. We do not ask for promotions as often. We are often dismissed. We know there’s issues of discrimination and inequality in general. And so, I’m happy that there’s a lot of attention on it and a lot of people are trying to fix the problem, but it exists. I think that makes it even more imperative for women to invest because we cannot rely on just getting paid more or having more wealth to start with. We are already behind. And by not investing, again, your money is depreciating. Even if you are saving or if you are investing poorly or making poor financial decisions, again, that’s detrimental to financial independence and honestly, overall empowerment. I think one thing that I learned in my own experience was– as I mentioned, education was a huge focus for my family. And I was always taught that I have to do well in school and have a career so that I can be independent and empowered. But I think so much of that also is being financially independent and being able to take care of yourself because it gives you a lot of autonomy. I mean, at HerCapital, we have a global community which we’re very proud of, where we have women from Pakistan, from India, from Australia, really all over the world, that are a part of our community. And most of those women recognize that they can be much more bold in their decision-making or they can be much more empowered in their decision-making when they feel like they’re not dependent on others for their financial security. If you have a little bit of money that you can save and grow over time, it just improves your life and your ability to make decisions and to live a good life. I think it’s just so important and more important for women than men because we are so disadvantaged in so many ways, which– it’s getting better, but it’s still there. And particularly, women that are– women that we talk to in India or Pakistan – and I’m from there – but also in the US, there are real disadvantages to being a woman that we’re trying to correct, but you have to take charge of your own financial health and your independence so that you can be more empowered. |
Megumi | Right. And I think a lot of it also goes back to, like you were saying, as a society, right, men are either taught or just absorb that, okay, the guy, the father, the husband is the one who makes the financial decisions for themselves. Even you watch TV shows, movies, it’s always the guys who are having their happy hour after work or the guys who are on Wall Street working in banking and the woman who is at home or you see the girls who are on their shopping sprees or whatnot. You don’t have like the Sex in the City where they’re having brunch and talking about what their investment portfolio looks like. |
Rabiya | Absolutely. |
Megumi | Now it’s great that more women are working and there’s more two-income households and there is more conversation about, okay, being able to work or not needing to have children, or being able to work and have children, and can women really have it all? And that’s a whole separate issue. At the same time, part of that conversation has to be, “Okay, so we’re making money, now we got to manage it and understand that we have to take charge of our own finances,” not just be like, “Okay, I have an income and that’s it.” |
Rabiya | Yeah, exactly. It’s just so much more than that, right? And it’s amazing that we’ve progressed a lot, but there’s a lot more to do. And this is one small aspect of that. |
Women invest 40% less than men on average, yet a study done around the financial crisis, found that women on average had 4-7% better returns than men when they did invest.
Megumi | Absolutely. Any final money tips for people? |
Rabiya | Yes. I love telling people, please do not underestimate the importance of budgeting and goal-setting. And that’s the number one thing you have to do before you start looking at trading apps and stocks, which is even more shiny and exciting, but really take a step back and think about your financial goals and your financial pain points. And I think it’s extremely important to use technology and leverage technology to help you do that. We are all busy; we all work; we all have other responsibilities. But now there’s a ton of financial-services-based technology that can be leveraged to make your lives easier and to make you more organized. So I personally like to use Mint, which is a budgeting app, and you can link it to all your accounts, and it will give you recommendations on where you’re spending more, where you could spend less; you can set a budget. There are people who like to do it more manually and have Excel spreadsheets. If that works for you, do that. But it’s extremely important to know how much you spend every month on what and where you can cut back and build sustainable and consistent habits. I cannot overemphasize the importance of doing what sounds very basic, but most people don’t do it. And they have a rough sense of how much they spend and where they spend it, but they probably couldn’t tell you to the dollar where they spend. And that is the level of awareness one should have when it comes to understanding your finances because that then enables you to make informed decisions about your investing and about your longer-term financial goals. If you know that it is possible for you to save a certain amount on a regular monthly basis, then you know how much you can invest in the shiny stocks that maybe you want to be a part of, but also then you know how much you can put in your 401(k), then you know how much maybe you can cut back on certain expenses or add to certain expenses. It just improves your life now, and it also helps you plan and build a path for the future. So, I cannot emphasize that enough. And I think it’s something that is ignored. |
Megumi | Because no one wants to talk about budgeting. They just want to– |
Rabiya | It’s just boring. Yeah [laughter]. It’s boring. That’s what it is. It’s boring, and it’s not exciting, but it is step one. You have to walk before you start running, in my opinion, and this is learning to walk. And then once you have a handle over your finances, having an emergency fund, cannot emphasize enough how important that is. And I think actually, a blessing in disguise, this pandemic has taught a lot of people, one, to pay attention to the markets and pay attention to investing. But I also think it’s taught us we can’t be complacent when it comes to your day job and when it comes to financial security. You can’t take it for granted. And so, the reason why budgeting and saving is so important is because it then enables you to plan for an emergency fund and have a certain amount of income that you can rely on that’s in maybe a savings account or a safer and more liquid asset. And then, you know how much money you can play around with that is disposable or that you do not need to rely on for a living. And that’s how you can safely take advantage of interesting trends. Or if you have a feeling, a good feeling about a stock, or if you’ve done research, you can play around with your money once you know how much you actually have to play around with. That’s the safer way to invest and to be a part of what is a very important conversation now without over-extending. |
Megumi | Right. Absolutely. Before you start investing in that shiny stock, you have to make sure that you’re not just ignoring a bunch of credit card debt, for example. |
Rabiya | I was going to say I feel like debt, like student loans, credit card debt, so many of us ignore it, and so many of us don’t think about it. Credit scores, another important one. Until you are buying a house, a lot of people don’t think about it. But the problem with credit scores, again, is a timing issue, right? That you could have the best credit for two months, but then make one mistake, or maybe you don’t have a long enough history. Credit Karma, again, is a great resource that you can leverage to take advantage of their services and learning how to have a better credit score. You can then take loans and manage your finances and your needs and your wants better. There are a ton of resources. But I think it all starts with taking the baby step and the boring step of planning and thinking about your budget and really understanding your finances and where the money goes and where it comes from. |
Megumi | Exactly. Where can people find you? Where can people find HerCapital? |
Rabiya | As I mentioned, we take pride in the content that we’ve created, and so I would highly encourage everyone to follow us on Instagram. Our handle is @her.capital. And then we have a website where we have a ton of resources, and we also post events that we do online on our YouTube.We also have a Twitter, @hercapitalinc. And then our website is just hercapital.org. We’ve also started doing small group sessions that we call Money Talks where women can get together, and we group them by stage of life and their concerns, and they can talk to peers and learn from other people’s experiences which we think, again, is a key reason why women are missing out is because we’re not having these conversations. There’s so much you can learn from your friend or a colleague or a peer who maybe went through the same struggle that you are going through now and from their experience and how they got over it. So that’s something that we’re doing. We also recently launched a campus ambassador program, so if you’re on a college campus or if you’re even in your workplace and you want to be an ambassador, we would love to have you on board and then you can spread the message, share our mission with people, and hopefully we can empower and help more women. |
Megumi | Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, definitely go check out HerCapital. I was browsing some of the resources that you guys had, and I was like, “I need to go through all of this. This looks helpful.” And like you’re saying, it’s looks really beautiful too, so. |
Rabiya | Thank you. And we have some very basic investing 101. We did a personal finance series on YouTube with a wealth manager in the Bay Area called Aspiriant. So we have these two amazing women. We did a series of events with them, and it goes through the basics of personal finance, the boring stuff, but then also the fun stuff like what are the different financial instruments you can invest in? How do you diversify? And then we also talk about behavioral finance. What are the biases that women and men actually are more prone to? And how can you account for them when you’re making financial decisions? And I think that one’s super interesting and hopefully sheds light on things that we all fall prey to. |
Megumi | Well, thank you so much for your time today. |
Rabiya | Yeah. Awesome. It’s so great to be here. |