Report: Mylo finds Canadian women set financial goals that are 52 per cent smaller than mens'

Fintech app discovers a new gender gap by looking at how male and female users set goals and think about investing

MONTREAL, March 7, 2018 /CNW/ - Today, Mylo Financial Technologies Inc. (Mylo), the Montreal-based fintech app that lets users round up their purchases and invest the spare change, released a report that examined the investing and saving behaviours of Canadians by looking at an anonymized sample of over 30,000 users. The report uncovered three key findings: women set financial goals that are 52 per cent smaller than men, women are twice as likely to report that they "don't know anything" about investing, and on average women display lower risk tolerance and are more likely to select an investment strategy that generates income and avoids loss.

"We started Mylo with the mission of helping Canadians achieve their financial goals, but we recognize that, when it comes to money, there isn't a level playing field for men and women in this country," said Mylo's CEO and founder, Philip Barrar, in a letter accompanying the report. "We looked at our Mylo user data, and saw some trends, which we're sharing here in the hopes that it will further the conversation about equality."

"We've long known that Canadian women earn less money and are less likely to invest than men," said Amelia Young, a financial thought leader and founder of Upside Consulting. "What Mylo's data makes clear is that Canadian women lack confidence in their investment knowledge and in their ability to achieve financial goals at the same level as men. I'm excited to work with Mylo to test different ways to communicate with women in order to build their confidence around their ability to save, invest and achieve financial goals."

The gender goal-setting gap and self-reported investing knowledge

• Women set an average financial goal of $24,842 which is 52 per cent lower than the average financial goal of their male counterparts ($47,810).
• Mylo found that the top three savings goals for women and men are "Saving", "Travel", and "Paying for a house."
• Women set higher goals than men in only three categories: "Education" (5 per cent higher), "Health" (28 per cent higher) and "Wedding" (6 per cent higher).
• Half of the women said they "don't know anything" about investing, making them almost twice as likely to say this when compared to men.
• Only a combined 8 per cent of women said that they are " knowledgeable" or "an expert" when it comes to investing, whereas a combined 25 per cent of men felt comfortable making the same claims.

Investment strategy, risk aversion and reacting to the market

• Women are half as likely to favour high risk and twice as likely to decide to avoid loss, with 40 per cent of women choosing a strategy that generates additional income.
• A quarter of women (26 per cent) said they would either sell some or all of their investments if investment value fell while only 16 per cent of men would do the same.
• Only 15 per cent of women would buy more when investments fall in value, compared to 33 per cent of men.

The report analyzed the financial goals of an anonymized, random sampling of over 30,000 Mylo users. It also looked at users' answers to a standard set of "Know Your Client" questions about their investment knowledge, risk tolerance, and reaction to poor market performance (the answers of which are used to accurately select a suitable, diversified investment portfolio).

To celebrate International Women's Day, Mylo will give Canadians that start a Mylo investment account in March a $10 credit towards their financial goal when they use the promo code IWD2018.

The full report is available here.

To learn more about Mylo, visit mylo.ai.

Social media links:

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Jobs @ Mylo: https://mylo.breezy.hr/

About Mylo

Mylo is the investing app designed to help Canadians achieve their financial goals by rounding up their purchases and investing the spare change. Spend $3.25 on a coffee and Mylo rounds that up to $4.00 and invests the $0.75 in a fully managed, diversified investment portfolio. Mylo makes investing affordable and accessible for all Canadians, regardless of how much money they have or their level of knowledge of investing.

SOURCE Mylo

Mylo Financial Technologies, Jamie Gillingham, Eighty-Eight Account, Manager, [email protected], 1 416 944 2722