A few years ago, a Merrill Lynch study found that "women make fewer investment mistakes than men and make them less often -- despite the fact that, on average, they tend to know less about investing and enjoy investing less than men."
Back then, I observed how everyone could learn from the mistakes that many women managed to avoid. But looking back, I'm now intrigued that when you look at some of the other numbers, men and women aren't as different as you might think when it comes to investing.
Narrow gaps
For example, 63% of men and 47% of women surveyed said that after once buying a stock without doing any research, they'd repeated their mistake on a later occasion. Sure, women seem more responsible here, but nearly half have nonetheless behaved impulsively. If asked whether we've bought stocks after doing too little research, I suspect that most of us would raise our hands.
After all, do most investors in biotechnology companies such as Celgene
Meanwhile, while 69% of men report enjoying investing, 55% of women do, too. Yes, more men are into the stock market, but so are the majority of the women surveyed. And when the survey divided investors into categories based on their general interest level, the splits among men and women were pretty close to each other
Staying on track
Finally, when it comes to motivation, a similar 88% of women and 78% of men are investing for a comfortable retirement. Fortunately, a little enlightenment can go a long way in retirement planning. If you're trying to boost your IRA balance, dividend-paying stocks such as PepsiCo
Gender stereotypes may exist in investing, but they should never stop you from doing everything you can to become a better investor.
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