A total of 53 people responded to the survey. The results of the survey revealed marked attitudes on the importance of investing in property, choosing a home loan lender and concerns over interest rates.

The long-held belief in investing in “brick and mortar” is changing. Almost half of all respondents indicated that they wanted to supplement their property investment with other assets such as shares.

The brand of a home loan is not a decisive factor in choosing a lending provider. An overwhelming 52% of respondents replied that the reputation of their home loan brand was only “somewhat important.”

Although the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the National Bank of Australia were the top ranked home loan lenders, followed by the ANZ, the survey showed smaller banks such as Bendigo Bank, ING and Teacher’s Mutual Fund were also listed.

Interest rates are a critical issue. Approximately half of the respondents earmarked interest rates as the most important consideration when choosing a lender and a further 67.4 % expressed concern over the Banks’ decision to set interest rates, regardless of RBA policy.

Despite interest rate worries, 41.9% said they were happy with their current lender with 69% saying their lender has provided “some flexibility” to meet their needs.

Mortgage owners seek a wider range of home loan services and advice. More than half the respondents replied that they wanted other features such as the ability to stop payments for a period and extend the life of the loan, and free additional financial services to be offered by their lending provider. The survey also revealed an urgent need for lenders to give ongoing financial advice.

Only 9.4% of mortgage holders had been contacted by their lender to conduct an annual review of their mortgage. This perhaps indicates why more than half of respondents looked to family, friends and their partner for advice on home loans. A negligible 7.5% sought help from financial advisers.

Repayment time is not an important consideration. The survey showed 47.5% of people would not immediately switch loans even if it meant owning their home sooner. The importance of service, fee concerns and overall confusion regarding changing bank arrangements were listed as factors in this decision.

During June and July, The Investment Stylist will be asking their supporters to share their experience and opinions on the topic of Salary and Careers.

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Alice LeMessurier, Chief Investment Stylist and founder, said the survey highlighted that women are in control of their credit card debt management but they are doing little else to improve their financial position. 

“We surveyed more than 100 women who ‘like us’ on Facebook or have visited our website and found that while they are responsible with their credit cards, they are not really focused on creating future financial wellbeing,” said Ms LeMessuier. 

The survey found that 70 percent pay the balance of their credit cards in full each month and 50 percent check their credit card statements regularly to monitor their spending.   However, almost 50 percent worry about paying bills and more than 52 percent said they would not attend a free consultation to help sort out their finances.   Around 25 percent said they would make the appointment, but would probably cancel it.  

Only 23 percent set themselves a budget regularly and less than 40 percent make a conscious effort to work out their monthly expenditure. 

“We think this suggests that the majority of women are living month to month with little focus on their actual wealth,” she added. 

Alice LeMessurier founded The Investment Stylist in 2011 as a way to bridge the gap between women and finance. The launch followed a number of successful investment lunches for professional women in Sydney. The lunches highlighted the need for a forum where women can gather to discuss money, investing, insurance and wealth creation. 

“In 2010, I began to wonder why few of my clients were women. I started researching women’s investing habits and was astounded to find that 52% of women say that dealing with money is stressful and overwhelming; and 42% of women say that thinking too much about their long-term financial future makes them uncomfortable.” 

“Armed with these statistics and my own experience in investing, I felt the need to empower women with investing knowledge and the capacity to achieve financial independence. After the success of the investor lunches, my long-term goal now is to establish a community of women who fully understand their financial positions and who will openly discuss their investment choices,” said Alice. 

“We think there is a clear opportunity for financial advisors and the finance industry generally, to reach a largely an untapped, financially independent market. Yet our research suggests that the financial services industry is failing to target these women.” 

“There is considerable work to be done to provide the female market with the advice and resources they require to accumulate their wealth for the future.” 

The Investment Stylist is developing a sustainable platform of education and services for women to develop their own Investment Style. The platform will also offer the opportunity to the financial services industry to connect and communicate with women by providing expert content, support and product information to members. 

Ms LeMessuier said she aims to give financial product providers a forum to get a stronger understanding of the needs of women in order to tailor products and services to better suit financially interested women.

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