How to Invest Even If You Don’t Have Much to Inves
- Melissa Mondesir
- May 30
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 3
Ladies, I’ve got your QOTD (Quiz of the Day):
Have you paid off your credit card debt?
Do you have an emergency fund in place?
If you answered yes to both, here’s the most important question of this quiz: Have you started investing yet?
If not, let’s talk. How many times have you waited until that “right” moment to make that power move, make that special purchase, ask for that raise, and then get cold feet because what if now just isn’t the time?
I’ll let you in on a secret…when it comes to investing, there’s no better time than now, and you don’t need any more that what you currently have. More and more women are making a power move when it comes to their finances and sharing the secret that this moment is the best chance you’re going to get to make your money work for you through compound interest and long-term investments, even for moderate amounts. Don’t waste precious time “waiting” until you have enough money – what you have now will work and Ellevest is here to make good on that promise.
Sally Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest, had made it a priority to make investing accessible to women everywhere with a no-minimum investment policy. In theory, you could invest a penny, $10, $100, because her goal is to make investment a habit and to start as soon as possible. If this sounds counter-intuitive to you, it’s because we’ve been drilled with old-fashioned rhetoric that no longer works for this day of purpose-driven women.
Back when 85%-90% of the industry’s financial advisors and traders were men, many of the financial advisory firms have a $250K asset minimum (which excluded most women too and kept it to the elite stratum of the good ‘ol boys club). Today, companies like Ellevest Digital service has no minimum investment, so we have wealthy clients, as well as clients who can begin investing from their first paycheck. More on how Ellevest is switching the script on the gender investment gap here.
Other ways Ellevest is making it easy to start today:
They are a Fiduciary, which means that they are legally and principally bound ethically to act in your, the investor’s, best interests.
Ellevest is amongst a select group of robo-advisors that charge no account fees for opening, closing, or transferring an account.
Ellevest also charges no management fee for money held as part of an emergency fund, as this is invested as cash in an FDIC-insured bank account that might not earn as high of interest, but it will never lose its principal (that’s in stark contrast to Betterment, a competitor at which emergency funds are invested in the market and carry a management fee, too.)
In terms of a leadership team holding itself to its high standards, you won’t find a more equality-oriented company dedicated to you and your goals. 38% of Ellevest staff identify as people of color; their engineering and product teams are 52% women; and, overall, 72% of their colleagues identify as women. So they understand the challenges that we’ve been presented with for generations and have undergone rigorous planning to make sure it is as easy as possible for us to start closing the gender gaps – especially the investment gap – as soon as possible.
Moral of the story? Start with what you have today so that your wealth can start growing tomorrow.
All those excuses for not investing? Gone.
