Why Australian women are creating their own paths to wealth
Female investors are on the rise, and they’re managing the markets their own way
3 min
T hey’re young, they’re women and they’re ethically motivated – they are the new face of investing.
While the COVID pandemic was a growth period for new investors in general – there were more than three times as many new investors during 2020 than before – young female investors were already there.
They had been closing the gender investor gap long before we donned face masks and lined up for Covid vaccinations. Women make up 45 per cent of all new investors, according to the ASX Australian Investor Study 2020 – that’s a 31 percent increase in the past decade. And they’re not stopping there; women account for 51 percent of those who plan to invest.
“Females aged 55-plus are the group that have had the biggest growth in homelessness and I think hearing things like this in the media has made young women feel that they need to do better in the long run,” says Elizabeth Moran, director of the Australian Investors Association. “Young women are very connected and these types of conversations are constantly happening among them.”
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The chat is happening mostly via social media, with the rise of ‘finfluencers’, says Andy Darroch, an independent financial adviser with Advise Me Today.
“These finfluencers have had a huge impact,” he says of the growing rate of young female investors. “Social media as a whole, but fundamentally podcasts, has been largely responsible for getting these conversations going amongst young females.”
There’s people like financial advisor Victoria Devine from the popular podcast She’s on the Money, whose tagline reads “one stop destination for millennials who want financial freedom…without skimping on brunch.” Sydney content producer Queenie Tan has a YouTube channel called Invest with Queenie where she shares her journey to financial freedom with her almost 35,000 subscribers. Rounding out the trio is Kate Campbell with her multimedia platform, How To Money, that includes podcasts, articles and an active online presence.
But just as we have seen with the beauty and the health and fitness industries where non-professionals were often giving advice outside their abilities and qualifications, so too with finfluencers.
While some of these queens of finance social media are accredited financial advisors, some are just sharing their personal journey. And ASIC has warned followers need to be wary of who they’re getting their financial advice from.
The ASIC Young People and Money survey found 33 percent of 18 to 21 year olds follow at least one financial influencer on social media and a further 64 percent
had changed at least one of their financial behaviours as a result.
Also growing is the number of finance apps have come onto the market to make investing easier.
“For 40 years the formula for independent success was save up, buy a house, rinse and repeat,” says Darroch. “But with house prices growing at one percent a month, you can’t do that anymore and people are looking elsewhere for a new formula for success.
“But the (finance) industry makes it so complicated – there’s over 40,000 investment options for your super alone. Tech-reduced barriers like apps are helping people navigate this complicated world.”
Pearler and eToro are two popular apps which promise to make investing easier.
But a new kid on the block is the Blossom app, co-founded by millennial Gaby Rosenberg, which promises to plant a tree in a bushfire-affected region for every new account opened. While anyone can use it, it’s clearly marketed towards millennial females with an ESG focus.
An environmental focus is something that resonates strongest with women, says Anil Sagaram, founder and CEO of Acacia, a free app that allows users to upload their financial information to find new options for their savings, energy, superannuation and home loans that are more financially rewarding and sustainable.
“The bushfires, floods and the pandemic have driven an accelerated awareness of social issues,” Sagaram says. “And sustainable propositions is something that really resonates with young women.”
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3 min
An original watercolour illustration for the cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 1997 — the first book in J.K. Rowling’s hit series—could sell for US$600,000 at a Sotheby’s auction this summer.
The illustration is headlining a June 26 sale in New York that will also feature big-ticket items from the collection of the late Dr. Rodney P. Swantko, a surgeon and collector from Indiana, including manuscripts by poet Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes books
The Harry Potter illustration, which introduced the young wizard character to the world, is expected to sell for between US$400,000 to US$600,000, which would make it the highest-priced item ever sold related to the Harry Potter world. This is the second time the illustration has been sold, however—it was on the auction block at Sotheby’s in London in 2001, where it achieved £85,750 (US$107,316).
The artist of the illustration, Thomas Taylor, was 23 years old at the time and a graduate student working at a children’s bookshop. According to Sotheby’s, Taylor took a “professional commission from an unknown author to visualise a unique wizarding world,” Sotheby’s said in a news release. He depicted Harry Potter boarding the train to Hogwarts on platform9 ¾ platform, and the illustration became the “universal image” of the Harry Potter series, Sotheby’s said.
“It is exciting to see the painting that marks the very start of my career, decades later and as bright as ever! It takes me back to the experience of reading Harry Potter for the first time—one of the first people in the world to do so—and the process of creating what is now an iconic image,” Taylor said in the release.
Meanwhile, to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s For Annie , 1849, Sotheby’s recently reunited the autographed manuscript of the poem with the author’s home, Poe Cottage, in the Bronx.
The cottage is where the author lived with his wife, Virginia, and mother-in-law, Maria Clemm, from 1846 until he died in 1849. The manuscript, also from the Swantko collection, will remain at the home until it is offered at auction at Sotheby’s on June 26 with an estimate between US$400,000 and US$600,000.
Matthew Borowick for Sotheby’s
Poe Cottage, preserved and overseen by the Bronx County Historical Society, is home to many of the author’s famous works, including Eureka , 1948, and Annabel Lee , 1927.
“To reunite the For Annie manuscript with the Poe Cottage nearly two centuries after it was first composed brought to life literary history for a truly special and unique occasion,” Richard Austin , Sotheby’s Global Head of Books & Manuscripts, said in a news release.
For Annie was one of Poe’s most important compositions, and was addressed to Nancy “Annie” L. Richmond, one of the several women Poe pursued after his wife Viriginia’s death from tuberculosis in 1847.
In a letter to Richmond herself, Poe proclaimed For Annie was his best work: “I think the lines For Annie much the best I have ever written.”
The poem was composed in 1849, only months before Poe’s death, Sotheby’s said in the piece, Poe highlights the romantic comfort he feels from a woman named Annie while simultaneously grappling with the darkness of death, with lines like “And the fever called ‘living’ is conquered at last.”
Matthew Borowick for Sotheby’s
In the margins of the manuscript are the original handwritten instructions by Nathaniel P. Willis, co-editor of the New York Home Journal, where Poe published other poems such as The Raven and submitted For Annie on April 20, 1849.
Willis added Poe’s name in the top right and instructions about printing and presenting the poem on the side. The poem was also published in the Boston Weekly that same month.
Another piece of literary history included in the Swantko sale could surpass US$1 million. Conan Doyle’s autographed manuscript of the Sherlock Holmes tale The Sign of Four , 1889, is estimated to achieve between US$800,000 and US$1.2 million.
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Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
