Why 'safe' decisions lose women money

By Roné van der Merwe*

Not all women consider themselves ‘investors’. A ‘saver’, yes. Responsible with money, definitely. But investor? That word brings to mind people who check the markets obsessively, take risks you’d rather avoid, or have a financial confidence you don’t quite have.

Here’s where I’d push back. You’re already an investor. You almost certainly have a retirement annuity, a pension fund, or a provident fund: money going in every month, compounding quietly in the background, being managed by professionals whose entire job is to grow it.

You’ve been investing for years. You just haven’t been calling it that.

So the question worth asking is this: why is the money outside your retirement fund still sitting in a savings account?

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. A survey released last month by US investment manager Vanguard found that 51% of women hold their non-retirement savings in traditional savings accounts, cheque accounts, or physical cash.

The reason isn’t ignorance or carelessness. It’s that a savings account feels responsible, safe and in control.

That sense of safety is real, but it comes with a cost you may not have calculated.

Safe from what?

A savings account protects the number on your statement, but not what that number will actually buy you in five years. With inflation again on the rise, money sitting in a low-yield account is quietly losing purchasing power every year.

The balance goes up, but what it can buy goes down. It’s a slow erosion, easy to miss precisely because the statement always looks positive.

The real risk isn’t the stock market; it’s that your money isn’t keeping pace with your life.

Here are five things I encourage my clients to do:

1. Separate your emergency fund from your wealth fund

Keep three to six months of living expenses somewhere accessible. That money belongs in cash – it’s your safety net and it should stay there.

But everything beyond that has different goals, and it deserves a different home. Once you make that separation, the decisions become a lot clearer.

2. Ask what your non-retirement savings are actually doing

If you have money sitting beyond your emergency fund, ask yourself honestly: what is this working towards? A savings account isn’t a strategy; it’s a holding pattern.

Unit trusts, balanced funds, and tax-free savings accounts all offer far better long-term growth potential, without requiring you to pick individual stocks or follow the markets every day.

3. Stop waiting until you feel ready

I’ve found that many women wait until they understand everything before they invest. The intention is good, but the cost is real, because time in the market compounds.

You don’t need to understand all the mechanics. A good financial adviser will walk you through your options and put together a plan you can trust. Start now, and build from there.

4. Separate risk from recklessness

Not all risk is the same thing. Putting money into a diversified, well-managed portfolio is not the same as gambling.

The risk of doing nothing, of watching your purchasing power quietly shrink year after year, is just as real and far less talked about. When you reframe it that way, playing it safe starts to mean something different.

5. Think about the currency your savings are sitting in

This isn’t a vote against South Africa. But if all your savings are rand-denominated, you’re carrying South African political, economic, and currency risk across everything you own.

A portion of your portfolio in global assets offers real cover against that risk, and gives you access to markets that have consistently delivered strong long-term growth. It’s not about complexity; it’s about protecting what you’ve worked to build.

My message to you is this. You already have the instincts this requires: the patience, the long-term thinking, the discipline not to make impulsive decisions. Those are exactly the qualities that separate good investors from poor ones.

The only shift is putting those qualities to work somewhere they can actually grow into something.

Your savings account keeps your money safe; a well-structured portfolio makes it grow. You deserve both.

*Roné van der Merwe is a financial advisor under supervision of Suzean Haumann, CFP® and Aidan Frewswick, Registered Financial Practitioner™ at Brenthurst Wealth Belville roné@brenthurstwealth.co.za