Women's Wealth Canada
Women's Wealth Canada
How to Invest With Confidence: Five Secrets
In this episode of the Women’s Wealth Canada Podcast, host Glory Gray reveals How to Invest With Confidence: Five Secrets to help you take charge of your financial future. Drawing from decades of experience and lessons learned, Glory demystifies the world of investing and provides actionable advice to build your confidence, no matter where you are on your financial journey.
From understanding the importance of an emergency fund to learning how to invest automatically, Glory uncovers the keys to financial empowerment. She also shares tips on fostering open conversations about money, developing resilience through market downturns, and seeking guidance from trusted professionals.
Whether you’re new to investing or looking to refine your approach, this episode is packed with valuable insights to help you navigate the path to financial security with confidence.
Podcast References: https://www.seaandsummitbooks.com/browse/filter/t/persephone/k/publisher
Hosted by Glory Gray
Take Action:
Watch the webinar: 📽 The Real Questions to Ask Before You Retire
Download our free guide:
🔻12 Smart Questions to Ask When Interviewing a Wealth Advisor
Contact us for a 👉 Free Wealth Consultation
Join our community! Fill out our 🍏 Client Application Form
More ways to contact us:
Website: GloryGray.com
Facebook: @GloryGrayWealthSolutions
LinkedIn: Glory Gray
Instagram: Glory Gray
How To Invest With Confidence: Five Secrets
Announcer:
You're listening to the Women's Wealth Canada podcast with Glory Gray. Be sure to download and subscribe using your favourite podcast app and like us on Facebook.
Are you going through a life transition and need to find a wealth advisor to manage your investments? You don’t have to feel discouraged wondering how to find the right one. Grab my free guide, “12 Smart Questions to Ask When Interviewing a Wealth Advisor.” This guide gives you all the questions and why you should ask them. Just go to GloryGray.com, pop in your email address and we’ll send it right to your inbox.
Glory Gray:
Hi, everyone, I’m Glory Gray and welcome to Season Five of the Women’s Wealth Canada podcast.
Wow! Five years, I can’t believe it. We just learned that we are among the top 25% of all podcasts hosted at Buzzsprout, which has over 100,000 different podcasts. We couldn’t have done it without you. Every time I head to my desk to write some notes on what I want to talk about on the podcast, I have you in mind. I want you to succeed. I want you to have the life you deserve.
Some of you may be new here, so let me fill you in on why I started the podcast. Why am I speaking to women? I find that there’s something about the conversations women have about money that is different from the conversations men have.
I’m not saying this is true for all women or all men, but it’s the experience I have had in the decades I’ve been in this industry.
Whereas men are interested in missing out on the next big gamble that they think will earn them a lot of money, Women look at money as a tool, not a pursuit.
They want to talk about what money can do for themselves or their family. How much is enough? How can they avoid being a burden to their children? How can they invest without taking on too much unnecessary risk? How can they provide an income for themselves when they are very old and how can they avoid being taken advantage of?
My friend just got back from a trip from Kenya. She is part of a charity helping children there get an education. She is particularly interested in helping the girls there because research shows when you help the women of a village with education and family planning, it helps the whole village thrive.
One of the stories I talk about is about a woman I knew when I was growing up. You may or may not have heard this.
This woman had three small children and a good job, which was rare for women at the time. Unfortunately, she was in an abusive relationship.
Now, this was back in a time when there were no shelters or services available to women in her situation. The thing that scared her the most was that she didn’t want her children to starve. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to support them on her own. So, she stayed in that abusive relationship.
Finally, her children grew up and she was free to leave. She moved far away, her career took off, she traveled and she bloomed. Unfortunately, this wonderful time in her life was short. She died of breast cancer at age 58.
That woman was my mother.
My mother’s story is one of the reasons why I chose to help women. And the wonderful lessons my clients teach me and that many of you have shared with me about how this podcast has helped you, inspire me to keep going. It’s why I do what I do.
My life has been very different from my mother’s. I had the opportunity to go to University and learn about money and how to best use it in my life. I have the confidence of someone who has taken chances and made mistakes and has come through. That’s how we build confidence, by coming through the other side. She didn’t have that opportunity.
Here’s the crazy thing. Women outperform men when it comes to investing. Fidelity looked at 5 million individual investors over 10 years and found that the return on assets of the women investors outperformed the men’s investments by almost ½ of one percent. So, there is no reason for us to fear investing. You’ve got this.
Yet, only 29% of women feel confident choosing investments that will help them achieve their goals. We have a confidence problem. So, how can you invest with confidence?
We’re going to unlock 5 secrets in the confident investor’s playbook.
But, before we get to it, I wanted to share something fun with you really quickly. When I’m not helping my clients or chatting with you here on the podcast, I’m pursuing other passions. One of those passions is reading. Book clubs are everywhere in our little piece of Vancouver Island, so often you’ll find me with my girlfriends discussing books over a cup of tea.
During one of those times, I learned about a small book publisher called Persephone Books. They were founded by a mother and daughter team in Bath, England in 1999. Their mission is to reprint neglected books by women writers. The covers are all a gorgeous grey and look great on your bookshelf. The end papers are period specific to the year the book came out, they match a fabric that was used at the time.
The founders of Persephone Books discovered that female writers of the twentieth century weren’t reprinted as often as their male author counterparts. For example, in 1924, there was an extremely popular bestseller called The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. The next year, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby came out. Which was a complete flop. Yet years later, Dorothy’s book was out of print, completely unavailable and Fitzgerald’s flop of a book is hailed as a classic. This means that Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and her estate and descendants no longer received any money for her art.
Persephone books researched who held the rights to the Home-Maker, which was the author’s family, received permission to reprint the book and sent the royalties to Dorothy's family. And that’s what they do with all their books, righting a wrong that has been going on for almost a century.
The books and stories are fantastic. And they’re not expensive. But, unless you are visiting the Bath area, they are almost impossible to ship to Canada. Luckily, a few small bookstores do carry them. The one I recommend is Sea and Summit Bookshop in Parksville, British Columbia. They ship all over Canada and their website is easy to order directly from. They are a small, family-owned shop. I’ll leave their information in the episode description. I have no affiliation with either Persephone Books or Sea and Summit and receive no compensation from them, I just love what they are doing to promote forgotten female literature.
Okay, back to our topic! What are the five secrets to investing with confidence?
Do you ever notice some women who exude confidence in any situation? More than likely, they’ve been through a lot of experiences and they’ve come through them. They survived and gained the confidence of knowing that whatever happens, they’ll handle it.
Secret number one: There are no mistakes, only lessons
I’ve been around long enough to have experienced four major, gut wrenching downturns in the stock markets. Downturns that took years to recover from. But what happened after every one of those big market losses? Huge market gains. Ones we could only dream of. This has taught me that, if you have time before you need to live off of the money you are investing, you will be fine. Hold onto your investments, don’t make any rash decisions and they will come back. The secret is you will gain confidence from going through these tough downturns and coming out the other side because you’ve seen it happen time and time again and you will find out that you will eventually end up on top.
Secret Two: Have an emergency fund
I think that many people are afraid to invest because they think they have to invest all of their money in stocks or other investments that are meant to be held long term, so they don’t invest in anything.
If you have an emergency fund that is available in cash anytime you need it, it gives you the confidence to invest money you’re not going to need right away in things that will earn you more money in the long run.
If you have a cash cushion that is there to handle the emergencies of life, such as a car repair or refrigerator replacement you weren’t planning on, or a sudden loss of a job, you’re more likely to not worry about what your retirement account is invested in and that gives you confidence. So an emergency fund is important.
How much money should you have in an emergency fund? The amount is going to depend on your comfort level and financial situation. A general rule is to work towards a goal of having three to six months’ worth of living expenses in a safe, flexible account, such as a high-interest savings account. If you’re retired, you may want to transfer money from one of your investment accounts into a savings account for emergencies.
If you’re still working and building your emergency fund from scratch, start by putting a little away from every paycheque into this account.
If you are carrying a lot of credit card debt, you may be better off paying the credit cards down first as fast as you can because credit card balances mean you have negative savings.
By the way, nothing will undermine your confidence as an investor than being overwhelmed with credit card debt. If you’re feeling that way, listen to Episode 1 of Season 4: Five Ways to Recharge Your Financial Goals for guidance on how to reduce your debt more quickly.
Secret Three: Invest automatically
Set it and forget it. I have some clients who have the willpower and wealth to deposit lump sums periodically into their investment accounts, but for most people, having your investment advisor set up automatic investments into your accounts is the best way to go.
It is so rewarding to see that account go up and up in value and when you see it grow you will gain more confidence. You will begin to see you are getting closer to the goals you set for yourself. You will begin to be surprised at how you didn’t even miss the automatic deposits going into your account. They don’t detract from your lifestyle at all.
Secret Four: Talk about money
If you ever have a chance to eavesdrop on wealthy men on a golf course, very often you will hear them talk about investments. They might discuss stocks or rental properties or companies they’re thinking about buying or selling. The point is they talk about money. And by talking about it often and asking questions and gaining information, they gain confidence in investing their own money.
Among my female friends, those who are business owners are generally comfortable talking about money with their friends. The rest of them are very uncomfortable talking about money and it’s something we need to change. Having money or lacking money does not define you as a person. It’s simply another skill in life, like cooking or fixing a car. If you talk about it with enough people and practice it often, you will learn.
Maybe you find it intimidating to talk to others about money. One way to start is by talking about money with your children. Think about it. When your child first asked “why is the sky blue?” did you have the answer off the top of your head? Or did you tell them to go research the answer and report back to you? They can be your own little research team! You can ask them a question about investments, or maybe they have a question, you can research it together and then discuss.
Try this one: Ask them according to the rule of 72, what percent return does your money have to earn in order to double your money in 10 years? (The answer is 7.2%)
Listen to this and other money podcasts in the car with your children, even if they’re playing on their own devices. They’re often listening even when we don’t think they are.
Research shows that families that discuss money prepare their children for success. Now, I know some of you are worried that if your children knew the exact amount of money you were leaving them, they’d be counting the days till your demise. You don’t need to show them your bank account. But you can talk honestly about successes and lessons you have learned about money so they can learn those same lessons. Did you wish you had not taken on debt as a young person? Did you wish you had saved sooner? Did you invest in a good investment? How did you find out about it? Would you do it again?
There’s so much they can learn from you and that you can learn from them. Having these discussions now can also make it easier many years from now when they have their own children and life partners and you need to start talking to them about your legacy. It will just be another natural discussion. Talking with your children will give you confidence and them confidence in being investors.
Secret Five: Seek advice from professionals
Find a financial advisor with whom you are comfortable asking questions. Sometimes we advisors use terms that we hear every day but you may not understand. You probably use terms in your work that I wouldn’t understand. Stop us and say, I don’t understand what you just said. Please explain it in a different way.
There are lots of books and articles that can help you, in addition to this podcast. We have over 40 episodes on different subjects.
The more you learn, the more confident you will feel and the more you will want to take what you learned and apply it to your own investment needs.
Glory Gray:
There you have it, the five secrets to investing with confidence. I hope it inspires you to start your year with new goals and visions for yourself.
Do you have a question you’d like us to answer on the podcast? You can send us a direct text in the episode notes or contact us on our website, GloryGray.com
I wanted to let you know that our office is accepting new clients this year. So, if you live in Canada and want to get serious about getting your financial house in order, go to GloryGray.com and get in touch with me.
If this podcast helped you, please subscribe, leave us a positive review and tell others about it so we can help them too.
I'm Glory Gray, your personal trainer for financial fitness telling you to take charge of your finances, plan for the future but most of all, enjoy today. Bye for now.
Announcer:
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice. It is not an offer to sell or buy or an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any entity or security cited. Mutual funds offered through Portfolio Strategies Corporation. Other products and services provided through Glory Gray Wealth Solutions.
