Beyond the Kitchen Table

Beyond the Kitchen Table is a new regular column featured in AgToday and written by Sonia Muir. Keep an eye out for the column in AgToday which provides updates on activities and issues important to rural women. You can also read the column online: www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/news/agriculture-today

Learn to invest and increase your confidence – life can change
From the July 2010 edition of Agriculture Today.
Written by Sonia Muir
I belong to a small women’s investment club called WINO (Women’s Investment Network of Orange) which has been running for more than 10 years.
We are a diverse group with a range of ages and interests who meet monthly in each other’s houses or in a local pub to talk about shares.
We each contribute $25 a month into a kitty and have gradually built a small portfolio that has even managed to survive the global financial crisis.
Now, we aren’t about to retire next week and go live on a yacht in the Caribbean, but we have learned a lot about how the stock market works and used our knowledge to make personal investment decisions outside the group.
An Australian Financial Literacy Foundation survey in 2008 found that women are generally highly confident in their ability to budget, save, deal with credit and manage debt.
However, fewer women (63 per cent) than men (75pc) are confident in their ability to invest.
Only 54pc had ever seen a financial adviser, although many had spoken to an accountant or tax agent (66pc), or a bank advisor (60pc).
Learning to invest and put money aside for the future is something that can start at any age – but the earlier the better.
Compared with our grandmothers, women in Australia are generally better educated, better paid and have many more career opportunities.
We need to remember, however, that life circumstances can change at any time.
We can become mothers, carers, get married (or unmarried), lose a partner, develop an illness, get a mortgage or leave a farm.
Such events can affect our family life, career and financial situation.
Financial literacy is growing in significance across public policy, internationally, because statistically, women live longer than men.
Research shows women are much less likely than men to have a superannuation fund or plan to ensure they have enough money for retirement.
Understanding how to manage and prepare financially for a possible future alone is a very real and critical gender issue.
The Financial Literacy Foundation and the Australian Office for Women have tried to address many of these issues by creating the free Women Understanding Money resource for women of all ages.
The handbook explores financial issues such as superannuation, controlling debt, getting advice and investing.
The best time to start learning and setting financial goals to secure your future is now.
Visit www.understandingmoney.gov.au or call 1800 236 235 for a copy of the Women Understanding Money handbook.
For regular updates on activities and issues important to rural women, also visit the RWN website, www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/rwn and email rural.women@industry.nsw.gov.au