Single Women Like Unconventional Investments: E-Trade
They are also more likely to dip into their retirement savings than the general population, according to a survey.
Single female investors are expected to comprise nearly half of working women between the ages of 25 and 44 over the next decade.
E-Trade analyzed trends among this investor segment in the most recent wave of its quarterly tracking study of experienced investors.
The study found that single women exhibit strong interest in less conventional investments:
- Marijuana securities: 35%, compared with 26% of the total population
- Blockchain and cryptocurrency-related securities: 33%, compared with 24%
- Environmental, social and governance investments: 29%, compared with 18%
And 37% of single women are likelier to invest abroad than domestically, compared with 29% of the total population.
The latest wave of the survey was conducted online in early January among 907 self-directed active investors, of whom 121 were single women who manage at least $10,000 in an online brokerage account.
The survey findings showed that 43% of single women had taken early withdrawals from their retirement accounts, compared with 33% of the total population.
Seventeen percent reported that they had done so in order to make a large purchase, 15% to pay for a medical emergency, 12% because of unemployment and 12% to pay for education costs.
Single women in the tracking study showed pronounced interest in emerging benefits that employers are providing.
Forty-two percent of participants cited education reimbursement, compared with 34% of the general population; and 24% student loan refinancing, versus 17%.
E-Trade didn’t say whether the single women were younger on average than its total survey population.