Millennial women have the funds available to start investing, but are held back by a fear of beginning the process, as well as the typical reason most millennials aren’t investing: debt, a study released yesterday by loan provider SoFi found.
While 53% of millennial women have emergency money set aside — about three- to six-plus months of rent/housing and necessities, the study found — a majority of women are still held back by fear even if they’re interested in investing, SoFi found.
Of the 2,050 women surveyed, 56% noted that this fear holds them back, even though women tend to outperform men when do they start to invest, according to a Fidelity study last year.
This is despite the fact that the majority of millennial women are fiscally responsible, with 70% checking their bank account details at least once a week, SoFi found. However, once women get past their fear of investment, they still need to grapple with other factors that may prevent them from doing so, namely debt.
The study found that 43% of millennial women would put the full amount of a $10k bonus into paying down their debt, as opposed to saving or investing the funds, indicating that student debt remains a barrier for younger adults looking to save.
However, as SoFi noted in a previous study last year, millennial women tend to pay off their debt at a faster rate then men, despite having just as much debt as well as lower rate of income.
Take a look at the full survey here.
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