From her first salaries, Alexia Alberti was in charge of buy dollars with the pesos left over after covering all their expenses. A year ago, however, seeing that he had more money available, he began to investigate what he could invest it in to maintain its value beyond being dollarized. His first interest was cryptocurrencies, at a time when the subject was beginning to be talked about more forcefully than ever in Argentina. And after finding out from a friend of hers that she had already ventured into the field and watching tutorials on the use of the different platforms, she chose one and allocated a small amount.
“But I had heard that the key is that you have to diversify the risk, and that is achieved by investing in different ways, so I kept looking for how to do it,” he says. Her next step was to investigate different women entrepreneurs on networks talking about finances and telling her experiences. In that she was when she wrote to him on Linkedin a financial advisor, who offered to include her in a retirement insurance plan. After consulting with family members and close experts, she decided to try it, since the system interested her and seemed reliable. That was his second investment.
The third came from the hand of this same adviser, who through an application helped her invest with returns in the short or long term. “On the other hand, I always kept buying dollars, and as a result of some talks with friends and family I started buying MEP, using new platforms,” he says. Although it was difficult for her to get into this world, at the same time she also let her financial advisor do it for her.
At 28 years old and just one year after beginning to enter the world of finance, his investment portfolio is varied and broad. And although she looks like a “rare bird”, many women who in recent times have begun to be interested in this subject can be seen reflected in her mirror. As proof, the different books, podcasts, apps, courses and social media accounts (and her huge entourage of followers) that have emerged to report on the issue suffice.
emotional approach
When in March 2022 Helena Estrada published “Owner of your money” (Editorial El Ateneo), had been making women aware of the importance of taking charge of their finances for some time from her Instagram account, @helenamestrada, and her podcast “Mujer es Poder”. But since then the number of interested parties has only grown. “It is impressive how more and more women are approaching this topic, both young and old. There is more and more awareness of the impact that your personal finances have on your life and the responsibility that you personally have on them, ”she relates.
Among the issues where he notices more interest are the economic implications and responsibilities that arise from the ties with their partners, as well as issues of economic and patrimonial violence. “It’s a topic that isn’t talked about much publicly, so every time I post something related to it, a lot of cases and questions come up, or sometimes it just creates a space to talk,” she says. In this sense, where Helena sees less knowledge is in the scope of rights. “Not all women are so clear that 50% of the marital property belongs to them, and that they have decision-making power over them. Many continue to think that if the man is the one who contributes the most money (or the only one), everything belongs to him and they have to ask permission to use it, ”she warns.
A relevant fact is that the first approach of women to the subject is above all emotional. That is why Estrada’s book, although it is about financial education, does not have a single number beyond certain data or statistics. “I wanted to start with the emotional relationship that women have with money. Because once we are clear about the motivation and the reasons why we want to start being interested, the rest is operational and there are many tools available, ”she explains. For now, the book is already in its second edition.
eradicate the taboo
It is a fact that money does not make happiness. But it certainly helps. Aldana Hamer understood that early on, when her half-brother was born with Down syndrome at the age of 14 and she knew that in time she would become her legal guardian. This not only made her grow up with more responsibilities, but also made her aware of the importance of being financially independent. “I was 18 years old and I was talking about retirement and my whole circle was telling me not to worry about it,” she recalls. When she two years ago she created “Financial Women”, an Instagram account (@femeninasfinancieras) and also a blog, finally found a like-minded audience that is also interested in planning that future, while still living in the present. At the same time, her book arrived, “Stop! Women investing” (Tinta de Luz), and from these three platforms today shares the importance of investing, saving and planning, always with simple terms that are easy to understand for all audiences.
“In recent decades, women have entered the labor market more, but even so we still have less access to financial institutions and savings mechanisms. While 55% of men claim to have an account in formal financial institutions, only 47% of women do, and that number is even lower in low- and middle-income economies,” she relates, citing a study by UN Women. Her quest for awareness is about helping bridge this gap by, among other ways, helping to make it no longer taboo to talk about money between women. “In a meeting it is much more common to hear them talk about home economics, for example commenting on which supermarket is better to buy, while men talk about big money, investments and business”, she illustrates, pointing to the need to equate this.
In her community, questions are repeated about how to learn to save and manage money after a separation (in which the man always handled everything), how to generate extra income, how to manage debts, how to invest. “I have clients younger than me, who are starting their first job and realize that it is important to plan for something in the future, and also others who are already retired and want to leave something to their grandchildren,” says Hamer, convinced that although we were never taught financial education in school or university, it is vital to start implementing it for the masses.
within everyone’s reach
And it is not only on networks that it is possible to access up-to-date content on economics for women. The interest is so great that in 2020 Mujer Financiera was created, an app that includes basic tools to manage personal finances, as well as financial education and contact with a specialized community, and that has exceeded more than 200,000 downloads.
Created by Sabrina Castelli’s financial education startup of the same name, Mujer Financiera, the app is mostly used in search of independence resources. The “My accounts” section, for example, is extremely useful for recording income, expenses and savings, both personal and family or from a project, allowing you to see the impact of economic decisions on a daily basis. In the mother company, meanwhile, they offer courses and information that allow saving and investing in a simple and easy way, and they have a community of more than 500,000 followers in @mujer_financiera.
From the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, for its part, they also support this growth, and at the end of 2021 they launched a free finance course for women. Online, seeks to provide training opportunities to achieve economic autonomy. “Our goal is to create better development opportunities for women, and financial education is one of these lines of work. For this reason, together with the Ministry of Education, we are working on the development of a platform that will have various tools to make available,” said Marisa Bircher, Secretary for Gender Equality. For now, the course is virtual and free and addresses topics such as the initial steps to save, how to build a budget and how to invest.
Female empowerment also reaches finance. Luckily, the tools available are more and more.
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