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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