Financial literacy is a valuable skill, but women have historically lagged when it comes to understanding investing. Milford Wealth Management Adviser Jess Travers talks with Ryan Bridge about the barriers women face, and steps to overcome those barriers to achieve greater financial independence.
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Bridge talks Business: 3 March 2026
Episode Transcript
Ryan Brige:
Kia ora and welcome to episode 65 of Bridge talks Business with Milford. It’s a fact that women on average live longer than men, three to four years longer. And when you’re planning for retirement, whether you’re a man or a woman is actually quite an important factor in determining how much money or how much asset you might need. Retirement can last 20 to 30 years, so three or four is not insignificant.
Luckily, we’ve got Jess Travers on the show this week with a plan to help women invest. First, here’s your top five business bits from the last seven days.
1. Oil spiked over the weekend on the back of the news out of the Middle East. On top of the rise that we’ve already seen year to date. Other markets more muted with minor weakness in shares and a stronger US dollar, a sign of investor confidence despite the headlines.
2. To AI, Nvidia reporting blockbuster earnings last week. Despite this, the stock fell post announcement as investors appear to be well positioned for this ongoing semiconductor boom.
3. Across the Tasman and Australia, inflation still running hot, too hot for the RBA’s comfort at 3.8% year-over-year. Largely, this is electricity subsidies coming off, but the markets still think they will keep increasing rates this year.
4. A key US business survey showed continued optimism from US manufacturing firms after three years in the doldrums.
5. This week investors will focus on the US employment report, looking for any signs that job growth is being hit, negatively impacted by AI. Plus, we will keep a close eye on oil.
Alright, it’s time to get stuck into our feature interview for this week. I’m delighted to have Jess Travers back on the programme, Wealth Management Adviser for Milford. Just a reminder, this segment is informational only and should not be considered financial advice. Jess, welcome back, it’s lovely to have you.
Jess Travers:
Thank you.
Ryan Brige:
So, today we’re talking about women investing and confidence in investing. Why are we talking about this today?
Jess Travers:
That’s a great question. So first of all, we want financial literacy to be an important factor for everyone in New Zealand. All Kiwis should feel confident with their investing, but there’s a few reasons why it’s particularly important for women.
First of all, on average, women tend to live longer in New Zealand. So women tend to live about three to four years longer than men. That means we’re gonna need more money at the end of our lifetime potentially. We might need more money for health costs if we’re living a little bit longer. So investing can help us fill that shortfall when it comes to the end of our life.
Ryan Brige:
And that’s not insignificant, right? Three to four years on a 20, 30-year retirement.
Jess Travers:
Exactly, exactly. So even if you retire at 60, you might need money for potentially 20 to 30 years plus, so investing will help you get there.
Second of all, we would love to help close the pay and wealth gap. So there has been some really great work done in this space, but on average, females are still earning about 5.2% less than men, more in some cases for certain groups. That’s as at June, 2025. So that means through our lifetime, we are earning a bit less potentially. It means we’re able to contribute a bit less to our investments.
And we know that come retirement, currently females are retiring with around 25 to 36% less than males in their KiwiSaver balances. So that’s pretty meaningful. So we would love to be able to get New Zealand women thinking about, hey, can I continue to add a bit more to my KiwiSaver or keep adding, perhaps when I’ve stepped away from the workforce because we know that’s pretty common, or if I’m earning less for a period, how can we think about continuing those savings and keeping your investments on track?
Ryan Brige:
Does one cause the other? Like is the pay gap or taking time out of work during your working life, does that cause the wealth gap at the end?
Jess Travers:
Yeah, potentially. So they are both really unhelpful when it comes to creating long-term wealth. But we know by having a conversation around, hey, let’s get your money and investments working really hard for you along the way so that if you do have a gap, or a gap in your earnings or time away from the workforce, then they are maximising your savings over a long period of time. So let’s get you in the right investments. Let’s talk about continuing to add to them if you’re able to, to help close that gap over your lifetime.
Ryan Brige:
Does the gap take into account your partner’s – if you’ve got a partner – your partner’s assets as well, which might be jointly held?
Jess Travers:
Yeah, I mean, look, it’s great to have good joint wealth, but we would love for females to feel financially independent because we know life is gonna throw us some curve balls along the way. You know, that’s a given. We’ve got a pretty high divorce rate in New Zealand. I think it’s around 41% currently. You might face job loss. There might be health issues, which means you’re unable to work for a while. So we would love for females to feel that they are comfortable taking the reins, should life throw them a curve ball.
Ryan Brige:
When it comes to risk, men, better, I don’t know if that’s the right word, or worse, at taking risks. Because you know, young men get in car accidents because they take more risks than young women when they’re driving. Is the same principle kind of applied when it comes to investment decisions?
Jess Travers:
This is a really good point, actually. So we have seen some observations that men generally are more comfortable taking investment risk. This is a real generalisation, but we would love for females to feel confident getting themselves in the right type of investments to maximise and grow their wealth over time. We know men are comfortable carrying more debt, generally speaking. They are tending to go into higher growth investments, you know, when they’re younger. We would love for females to feel that they’re confident. Females make fantastic investors, and we’ve seen that perhaps what’s holding them back is actually just a lack of confidence, so that’s why we’re having these types of discussions. We want females to access the wonderful tools and resources that we’ve got to feel more equipped and get comfortable taking risk. I talk about this a lot. There’s a real risk of not taking enough risk. So what I mean by that is that if females aren’t getting themselves in the right types of investments, they’re potentially foregoing some really great longer-term returns. So they’ll end up with less by being more conservative through their investment lifetime and journey.
So we would love to get, well, all investors, but especially females, comfortable taking risk, get in higher growth investments like shares, because if you do have a long timeframe, then you’ve got the ability to ride through the bumps and ups and downs in share markets.
Ryan Brige:
Of course, because you’re living longer.
Jess Travers:
Potentially, yeah.
Ryan Brige:
So you’ve got all the time in the world to do it. And the younger – because I mean, we’ve talked before about compounding returns. Amazing miracle that is compounding returns. The younger that you can do that, the earlier you’re in, then the longer you’ve got.
Jess Travers:
Absolutely. Time is your superpower when it comes to investing. So compounding returns as a reminder, that’s the growth on the growth over time. The longer you’re invested, you get more and more benefit from the compounding returns. So that’s why we’re big advocates for starting as early as you can when it comes to investing. Even if you start in your fifties, you’ve potentially still got a 20 to 30 year investment timeframe. That’s a really long time. So it’s especially important for those starting in their twenties and thirties, but just as important for starting later in life as well.
Ryan Brige:
Alright, so what are some hot tips Jess, for women, female investors, young or new investors who are, as you say, maybe in their fifties, maybe in their sixties, who cares? What are some tips for investing?
Jess Travers:
Great, start as early as you can and invest as much as you can and as often as you can. So adding to your investments regularly can really move the needle over a long period of time. I would also say that time is your superpower. So leave that investment in there for a long time, keep contributing to it, even if you do have a gap in your earnings. Make sure that you have your investments working as hard as they can for you. So check your KiwiSaver fund. Are you getting the maximum benefit from your employer contribution? Should you perhaps adjust the fund that you’re in to get you a really nice competitive rate of return? So do a stock take there.
The other main one I would say is, automate your savings if you can. So that is a great tip. If I had to manually put money in my savings and investments, it would not happen. Because it’s automated for me, it’s out of sight, out of mind, it’s effortless. So start, explore taking risks, get in growth assets over time, like shares, bonds, property. Those are gonna grow more for you than savings. So savings in the bank alone isn’t enough to get us where we need to be. You need to be in growth assets over time because remember inflation erodes any benefit from having cash in the bank.
Ryan Brige:
And yet there is still this attitude and it’s not just a female thing. I think it’s a Kiwi thing of, I’ll put it in the bank, it’s gonna be safe in there. Just to finish, a lot of what we’ve talked about today is almost a mindset change. There is no difference in the ability of men or women to make investment decisions. In fact, as you say, women might actually be a little smarter in that regard. But it’s a kind of mindset shift of, you’ve just gotta take a bit of risk. So how do you do that?
Jess Travers:
Look, if you’re not sure what level of risk is right for you, you can reach out to a financial adviser. But if you’ve got a long period of time, then there’s a really great reason why you can invest in growth assets like shares and managed funds, because you’ve got the ability to ride through any movements over the long term.
So risk isn’t that you’re going to lose all your money, it’s not gonna disappear, it’s how much you’re willing to let it fluctuate around by. Like I’m not an advocate for going out and chasing returns that are too good to be true, but we’re really big advocates for getting in investments with a long track record of generating good returns and that are gonna set you up really well later in life for the retirement that you want, maybe even some shorter term goals like travel, upgrading your house, that type of thing. So look for really good long-term investments that have a good track record, in particular in growth assets like shares and bonds and property.
Ryan Brige:
Jess, lovely chatting to you today.
Jess Travers:
Thank you.
Ryan Brige:
Fascinating conversation as always, come back anytime.
Jess Travers:
Thank you.
Ryan Bridge:
And that was Jess Travers, Wealth Management Adviser at Milford, talking to us about women and investing. It’s International Women’s Day this month, which is why we’re talking about it, but also the confidence to be able to invest. We all know how to do it, but we’re got to have confidence to go out there and get it.
So don’t forget you can like, follow, and subscribe, or share this podcast with your friends wherever you like to listen. We appreciate you doing so. Until next week, don’t forget to invest in yourselves.
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