There’s a lot going on when you’re a 30-something woman when it comes to money – careers, investments, debt and potentially Motherhood.
Here’s what the Financy Women’s Index has taught us about this age group
- Unpaid work: women 25 – 44 are doing up to 12% less unpaid work than they were in 2002. That said, The amount of unpaid work significantly increases from age 25 which is likely to reflect a period when we start to see more individuals either living independently, or in a coupled relationship, and some of us having children.
- Employment: There are significantly more women aged 25-34 years working full-time than in any other age group.In this age bracket, there are 922,000 women in full-time work, which is up 15% over the past five years. Overall the biggest employer of women by industry remains Health Care and Social Assistance, despite a moderation in the number of women hired since the start of 2019 and an increase in the number of men.
- Leadership: Women represented 39.1% of overall managerial positions in a dataset of over 4.1 million employees in 2017-2018 compared to 35% in the 2014 financial year, according to WGEA data. But when we look at boards, women are still struggling to hit that magic 30% target set by the AICD for female board representation on the top 200 richest listed Australian companies.
This is the age group and lifestage phase when many women are climbing the career ladder and when they are more likely to start a family.
It’s also the phase when we start to talk more about investments.
Jun Bei Liu lead portfolio manager for Tribeca Alpha Plus Fund suggests that women in their 30s should be looking for more of a mix between equities, fixed income products such as a mix of corporate and government bonds and property but still remain more skewed to higher growth assets.”
She adds that some women may also want to reduce their risk exposure to certain growth assets like equities compared to in their 20s.
This is also a life stage where many people take on extra financial responsibilities, such as a home mortgage.
“Extra financial responsibility requires extra financial protection,” says Kim Hughes Chief of QInvest at QSuper.
“Ensure that in your 30s you review the amount of life insurance you need, and think about your estate planning,” she says.
Here are five top money and investment ideas for 30-something women.
- Even if it is small sum and even if it is just with an Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), this the time to take control and look at growth investments but also consider diversification to manage your risk.
- If kids or even more kids are on the cards, then planning for a career break, by topping up your superannuation, starting a baby fund or checking whether employer benefits on parental leave, can all make an impact on your future financial security.
- Your pay. Chances are in this age group you’ll experience a pay rise or bonus, so where possible consider automatically investing some of it. You could do something like 35% to super; 35% to investment; 30% spend. Also, ensure that you automatically increase savings with any pay rises
- Insurance. Re-check your insurances in and outside of super as your salary increases or if you change employers.
- Debts. This is the life stage when your debts are likely to get bigger, so it is important to remain on top of things such as credit cards and think about minimising non-deductible debts.
This Financy article is a rewrite of one we provided to Yahoo Finance and it has been republished here with exclusive permission.
