SoFi survey: women 25-45 rank investing 11th among money priorities

Investing ranked 11th among the financial priorities women ages 25 to 45 named for the coming year, with 13% choosing stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrency or mutual funds, according to a SoFi report. Among men in the same survey, 28% picked investing, and it topped their list. InvestmentNews reported the findings on Oct. 19.

Paying down debt led for women at 45%, compared with 28% of men. Reducing expenses (34%) and building an emergency fund (31%) completed the women's top three. Asked what they would do with money left over after rent, bills and groceries, 6% of women said they would invest it; 18% of men said the same. The figures come from an August online survey of 1,200 U.S. adults ages 25 to 45, with a target household income of $75,000 or more.

On a 1-to-5 scale of barriers to investing, women gave equal weight to two: keeping cash accessible and not understanding the stock market. "Investing is a necessary step every woman can take to build a strong financial future," said Liz Thomas, chief market strategist at SoFi. "It doesn't have to be complicated to be effective, and you don't need to have it all figured out – nobody really does."

Retirement outlook produced the widest gap in the report: 56% of men said they were highly confident they could retire, against 26% of women. Another 44% of women reported low confidence, double the 22% rate among men. Men ranked "retirement already covered" among their top three reasons for not investing more; women placed it second to last.

About 83% of women hold an investment account and 70% use an employer plan such as a 401(k), against 93% and 79% of men. The gap widens in self-directed accounts, where investors choose their own holdings: 40% of women hold one, compared with 63% of men.

SoFi calls the 31% of women who rate their stock market knowledge a 4 or 5 "investment-forward." Those women are more likely than the least confident group to use advisor-managed investments, 32% versus 19%, and 81% of them hold investments outside an employer plan, against 54% of their more cautious peers.