At 17-years-old, Manuela didn’t know much about investing— it was never something covered at school.
Without a knowledge base surrounding investments, Manuela says she just assumed it was something “complicated” or even “scary”.
Things changed, however, when her dad decided it would be worthwhile to give her hands-on experience with investing.
“My dad saw it as essential for [me] to learn about [investing] and how to control money, so we went looking around [for ways to do that],” Manuela tells Women’s Agenda.
After doing some research, Manuela’s dad Rafael learned about an app called Drip Invest, and realised that it would be an easy and safe way for Manuela to get some early exposure into investing her money.
Drip is a micro-investing and educational app that teaches under-18s the foundations of investing with real investments, hands-on learning and parental controls. It was designed to help them build confidence and real-life financial skills.
Within the app, families can start investing from only $5. Kids and teens can explore and learn from 15 investment options, with interactive education content for support. And in order to make investments, minors send requests, which can then be approved or declined by their parents, who oversee the investment decisions.
Parents can also set rewards for learning, such as weekly money boosters that are unlocked when their kids answer questions about market updates and investing concepts.
“The app breaks down the information a lot, so it’s very easy to use because it’s really simple,” says Manuela.
“When I want to invest, it sends a notification to my dad,” she says, “and then we’ll talk about it, and it’s really nice because we can have a conversation about it.”
Since using the app and learning more about investments with her dad’s support, Manuela says she finds the concept much less scary and complicated.
“It’s not as scary as it sounds,” she says, adding that the app has taught her investment is “a long-term thing” and that it’s important “to look out for yourself” financially.
“I feel like, in the future, when I get to [be in] more complicated investment areas, I’ll be able to understand them more because I have been in the [investing] space.”
Empowering the next generation with financial literacy, the Drip Invest app is available for download on the App Store for mobile devices. To give your child a head-start with investing and start meaningful conversations at home, check it out here.
The stark gender gap in financial literacy
While financial literacy is a critical life skill for anyone, it’s especially important for young women to have it. Research shows 52 per cent of women in Australia are financially illiterate, compared to 37 per cent of men.
Among the 8.5 million Australians who lack understanding of basic financial concepts, girls and young women are being left behind even further.
Forty-one per cent of girls have reported feeling nervous or clueless about investing, compared to 30 per cent of boys.
Co-founder and CEO of Drip Invest Isabelle Charter says that, in order to bridge this gender gap, it’s important to start building interest and confidence around investing from an early age.
“A lot of women don’t invest because of a lack of confidence, [as well as] fear, or because they just don’t see [investing] as something of interest to them.”
And yet, Charter says these factors can be solved “with early exposure” because “if you’re familiar with something, you’re not scared of it”.
“When you give girls the opportunity to be familiar with investing terms, you reduce fear. We make it simple so we can build knowledge and confidence in small steps.. That’s how we break the stigma and bridge the gap.”
When it comes to Drip Invest’s role in building investment confidence, Charter says the idea is to provide enough options that young people want to learn and be active and engaged, while also not too many that it would make someone overwhelmed.
“The structure of what we offer is perfect for anyone who’s keen to start,” Charter says, noting that above all, her “massive, audacious goal” is to support women in the next generation to feel confident enough to invest and think of themselves as investors.
“We want to make investing accessible for everyone,” she says. “And we want every single woman in the country to be confident to invest their money in whatever makes sense for them.”
“I want everyone, and especially women, to feel comfortable that they can be an investor.”
Want to learn more about how Drip Invest teaches young people real-life financial skills through accessible and easy-to-understand content? Check out the Drip Invest website here.