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Girls That Invest: Your Guide to Financial Independence through Shares and Stocks
Your step-by-step guide to financial independence―from the creator of the #1 investing education podcast, Girls That Invest . Ever wondered how on earth the stock market works, but felt too intimidated to ask "those" questions? This is the book for you! In this guide to investing in stocks (aka shares), Simran Kaur teaches the essential principles you can apply to any market, anywhere in the world. Because money provides The freedom to say yes or no, the freedom to handle whatever life throws at you, and the freedom to grow and prosper. This book is your invitation to join the thriving community of women who are building a better financial future. Investing is for everyone. Pick up Girls That Invest , become an investor-in-training, and claim a space for yourself in the world of finance―so you too can find financial independence and create generational wealth.
215 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2022
2385 people are currently reading
20680 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,083 reviews
November 29, 2022
Buy it. Borrow it. Lend it to every woman in your life you care about.
September 22, 2022
I’m so glad this book exists and makes investing so accessible — particularly for women. This was a breath of fresh air in a field that has left women out of the conversation for too long.
With that said, the book is definitely targeted at beginners. I felt like the author could have gone into a bit more detail on certain topics. This is not a read I’d necessarily recommend to someone who already has a good understanding of the stock market (although it was still quite enjoyable!)
With that said, the book is definitely targeted at beginners. I felt like the author could have gone into a bit more detail on certain topics. This is not a read I’d necessarily recommend to someone who already has a good understanding of the stock market (although it was still quite enjoyable!)
August 29, 2023
DNF. it is informative for sure but just because its aimed at girls doesn’t mean you need to measure time in “longer than a kardashian marriage” and compare things to a beauty blender. idk if just seems off to be a book about educating girls and women but to then dumb it down to stereotypical ~girly~ things for it to make sense
October 9, 2022
Simran is literally busting myths page by page with straight facts.
I’m a fan of the podcast but the book is great to provide that structure to feel more confident to get started and the podcast supplements with great conversation and education.
I couldn’t put the book down and it’s absolutely made me think differently about spending and also ask myself why is no one talking about this more??? And why did I wait so long to think about investing??? But reading the book opens the conversation as to why and I’m just grateful that Simran wrote this!
This book is a must to learn how to make your money work for you and put a stop to the mindset that investing is for rich men in suits.
BUY THIS BOOK!
I’m a fan of the podcast but the book is great to provide that structure to feel more confident to get started and the podcast supplements with great conversation and education.
I couldn’t put the book down and it’s absolutely made me think differently about spending and also ask myself why is no one talking about this more??? And why did I wait so long to think about investing??? But reading the book opens the conversation as to why and I’m just grateful that Simran wrote this!
This book is a must to learn how to make your money work for you and put a stop to the mindset that investing is for rich men in suits.
BUY THIS BOOK!
August 10, 2024
This is such a great introductory (and easy to read) book for anyone who is interested in investing. I appreciated how Simran broke investment jargon down and used easy examples (ie. lemonade stand or ice cream) to highlight terms. Now I understand what a bond is, hedge fund or SP500 index!
Simran gave some practical advice about what to consider when investing and went over different “options” (ie. type of investor, types of portfolios, type of investments), which I appreciated that diversity. I also like how she highlighted the pros and cons.
I felt Simran’s advice was neutral in the sense that depending on your overall financial goals, she offered suggestions but didn’t claim one way to be the “right” way.
Definitely recommend to ANYONE who is interested in learning the basics and even just terminology.
One takeaway for anyone is that you don’t lose money when the market goes down unless you sell your investments for that lower price. Use it as an opportunity to buy more!
Simran gave some practical advice about what to consider when investing and went over different “options” (ie. type of investor, types of portfolios, type of investments), which I appreciated that diversity. I also like how she highlighted the pros and cons.
I felt Simran’s advice was neutral in the sense that depending on your overall financial goals, she offered suggestions but didn’t claim one way to be the “right” way.
Definitely recommend to ANYONE who is interested in learning the basics and even just terminology.
One takeaway for anyone is that you don’t lose money when the market goes down unless you sell your investments for that lower price. Use it as an opportunity to buy more!
December 13, 2023
For a girly whose financial knowledge only consisted of knowing what a high-yield savings account was, this book did wonders to help me become a bit more financially literate. The book utilized great analogies to understand different terms and even discussed ethical investing, which I appreciated and enjoyed learning about. I borrowed this book from Libby but ordered a physical copy to have on hand to refer to, which if you know me, is a huge deal because I am very much a Kindle gal. A must-read for those who are interested in learning the basics of finance!
July 1, 2023
Most useful book I’ve ever read! Simran is expanding financial literacy for all and in the process, acknowledging the barriers that women and POC endure.
February 1, 2023
I don’t think I’ve read a more helpful book in my whole life (besides the bible lol). Every chapter, every heading, every fact felt like the perfect amount of info to get started in investing in stocks. There’s even pop culture references 😃 even discussing the COVID related stock market crash of 2020 showed me how current the book is. Investing in the stock market without professional help (cause now I know it’s definitely possible) is just badass and empowering for me. I truly feel ready. Thanks Sim for simplifying something that is actually seemingly over complicated. Early retirement here I come?? (Yes I know im a stay at home mom)
May 10, 2023
READ THIS BOOK! If you're like me and have always wanted to know about stocks and investing but were too embarrassed to ask questions or talk about because you aren't a business major, this is the book for you. It unloads a LOT of info and will take time to digest it, but I think it's such a valuable reference I will keep forever (kinda like an investing Bible). The author does an amazing job of keeping the book lighthearted and engaging. This book truly inspired me to look at money in a completely new light. I will be reading and rereading this one.
April 9, 2024
Felt like this was a really lovely and digestible introduction to the main concepts of investing. It was nice to read it from the perspective (and with the language) of a millennial. Definitely inspired me to continue on my path of building wealth ✨
August 14, 2025
This book completely changed how I feel about investing and the stock market. I have always felt so completely financially illiterate to the point that it gives me anxiety and has made me cry before to talk about finances, debt, investments, etc. This book made the stock market and investing so approachable and not scary.
I needed the myth busting, the expectation setting of riding the waves, and the actionable steps of where to begin and when. I understand terms now I have never thought I would understand before and feel like I can at least be part of a conversation about investing.
I’m glad I passively listened to it initially so it was less intimidating, and felt like a friendly educational conversation with the author. Now though, as soon as I finished the audiobook I bought the hard copy online. I can’t wait to get it and read it again while highlighting and making notes my second time through.
I needed the myth busting, the expectation setting of riding the waves, and the actionable steps of where to begin and when. I understand terms now I have never thought I would understand before and feel like I can at least be part of a conversation about investing.
I’m glad I passively listened to it initially so it was less intimidating, and felt like a friendly educational conversation with the author. Now though, as soon as I finished the audiobook I bought the hard copy online. I can’t wait to get it and read it again while highlighting and making notes my second time through.
February 2, 2024
I read this because I wanted to stop feeling dumb around finance bros and it got the job done tbh.
April 18, 2025
I wish this book had been around when I was a teenager in the 1980s! Every high school should give all students a copy of this book so they can learn the basics, written in simple accessible language. I noticed the one star reviews were people saying the book is too simple and they felt talked down to. Well then, obviously this book is not geared towards you. It is a book for absolute beginners so if you already feel confident in your knowledge of the financial world please skip reading this.
In order to have more control in my life, in order to have the freedom to live in alignment with my goals and values, and in order to be able to walk away from situations that did not serve me, I needed to be financially free. This is it in a nutshell, why you need to invest
Over the years, through osmosis, I have picked up a little knowledge but I have never had everything spelled out clearly. As I got older, it became embarrassing. I felt everyone knew more than I did and if I asked questions I would look like an idiot. This book answers all my idiotic questions. Yes, I could have figured it out earlier than in my 50s but I stupidly didn't. This book prefaces its financial information by pointing out why women have not been as involved in the market as men and it did make me feel that perhaps my lack of knowledge isn't entirely my fault.
It wasn't till 1900, only 120 years ago, when women in every state in the US were able to control property. In Australia and New Zealand, it was 1884. In the UK, it wasn't until 1922, and in India, 1956.That's only one to three generations ago where the women in our families could control their own property.
Only in the 1960s and 1970s were women able to open up a bank account, get their own credit card or even get a mortgage. Before the US Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed in 1974, single, widowed or divorced women in the US still had to bring in a man to co-sign credit applications.
Women in Ireland could only own their own homes after 1976. Single women in New Zealand were being denied mortgages even as late as 1982, some being told they needed their father to co-sign. How can we expect to know how to invest when less than 50 years ago we couldn't even open up a bank account? Wow. I was in high school in 1982 when that was happening.
a 2018 analysis by Starling Bank in the UK scanned over 300 finance articles and showed
70 per cent of money media directed at men discussed investing, while 65 per cent of money media directed at women were about spending less. Women are told financial planning is complex, threatening and 'a minefield'. 2018! Women are still getting this message!
I came from a largely patriarchal background, and the financial imbalance between men and women is the foundation it stands on. I saw how the provider of the family gets to call the shots.
Too many times I saw women be asked to quit their jobs and become housewives, only to have their lack of income thrown back in their face. I've seen women have their opinions not taken seriously because they aren't the breadwinner or don't have an impressive job title. I've seen women train for decades in their skillset, only to be pressured into giving up their careers to raise their children so their husbands could focus on their careers instead. The patriarchy needs that financial imbalance to work.Why the author decided to start investing
My mom did try and teach me. I recall her showing me a graph of compound interest and I was gobsmacked. She opened an IRA for me to invest my money from summer jobs. She tried to get me in the habit of looking at the financial section of the newspaper every day and I did try to do that, but it struck me as dull and I quit. My parents were smart with money, saving and investing, so I had good role models. However, I wish I had had my interest sparked so I would have decided on my own to learn more. And as we are thinking about regrets, man I wish I had bought some Apple stock in high school!
I highlighted up the wazoo on my Kindle:
inflation usually sits around the 2 per cent mark annually. This means the money you have sitting in your bank account drops in value by roughly 2 per cent every year. Every. Single. Year. It never fails to amaze me how little we were taught about inflation, and yet the loss of money affects so many people daily. Inflation was 4.06% in 2023 and 9.59% in 2022. I wish it was 2%!
The stock market has returned 7 to 10 per cent annually, on average, over the last 40-plus years. This doesn't mean the stock market stays between 7 and 10 per cent each year; some years it's up 20 per cent and some years down 5 per cent, but it averages out to 7 to 10 per cent in the long run. IN 2022 the stock market return was -19.44%. Negative. Thanks covid! In 2023 it was 24.23% Quite the roller coaster
Compound interest is a beautiful thing where, when assuming a conservative 7 per cent annual return over time, your money approximately doubles in value every 10 years.
The process of using borrowed money to invest is called 'margin investing'. Investors in training now know that using margin investing to invest in companies, especially ones without intrinsic value, is a recipe for disaster. The stocks may not go up, and may even go down, but you'll still have to pay back your loan plus interest.
when someone says they lost a huge chunk of their portfolio, it was because they took on a greater risk to begin with by investing in individual stocks. The value of a single stock can rise and drop much more rapidly than the entire market. You can lose 90 per cent of a single company in a day, but it is very difficult for a broad market index to drop 90 per cent in a day-nothing like this has happened yet.
the risk of losing money when investing in a broad market, low-cost fund is low. It's not impossible, but it's incredibly low.
In some circumstances, it makes sense to hire a fund manager to invest for you, for example, if you inherit a large sum of money after a death in the family and aren't emotionally in the right frame of mind to invest yourself, or if you would like a hand to hold during the ups and downs of the market. Sometimes people with ADHD or other neurodivergent tendencies would benefit from having an adviser who provides assistance as required.
100 base points is equal to one per cent, so if Google moves up 100 points, it just means the Google stock is up by 1 per cent. Rather than speaking about the movement of a company in points, percentages are much more intuitive. 'But that would mean people can understand investing, we don't want that!' said some financial rule maker, at some point in history. I assume.
1. track your spending
2. pay off your high-interest debt(interest over 7%)
3. set up automatic withdrawals to separate your investing money from your living expenses money
4. set up a three-month emergency fund kept in a high-yield savings account
5. set up retirement accounts.
What you need to do when starting to invest
It's like eBay, where on one side is someone trying to purchase the product and on the other side is the seller trying to sell the product, only in the stock market the 'product' is shares. It really is that simple.
A stock exchange is a location where stocks or shares are exchanged, i.e. bought and sold.
There are many stock exchanges around the world, many in the most prominent cities of large countries. In fact, there are 60 exchanges worldwide. Out of these, 16 of them are extremely large. Think of a stock exchange like a list. It lists all the companies that you can buy stocks in. This lets you see how much the price of that company stock is and how much the price has changed since yesterday.
the US stock market is made up of 13 US exchanges, such as their famous New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ exchange. Companies are limited to the exchange that lists them. If you want to invest in British Petroleum you'd invest through the London Stock Exchange. If you want to invest in Samsung you'd go through the Korea Exchange.
Sector stocks: Stocks can be broken down by sector, such as stocks in healthcare (e.g. pharmacy companies),utilities, IT, energy, etc
Companies that are worth over $10 billion are large cap stocks. Stocks in large cap companies tend to be more stable. Companies between $2 and $10 billion are mid cap. Small cap is less than 2 billion.
Bonds are when you get to act like a bank and loan your money to a government or company.
With bonds, the company or government are basically asking you to loan them money. They'll pay it back to you with a fixed amount of interest to say thank you for letting them borrow it. Bond rates are affected by interest rates, so when interest rates rise, people tend to buy more bonds. Bonds are much less risky than stocks.
Rather than holding your money in individual companies, you can put a bunch of companies together in a basket and invest in a piece of that basket, called a fund, either mutual or index. Some mutual funds have these companies chosen by a computer (e.g. an index fund), while other mutual funds are actively managed by a human being and called mutual or managed funds
funds don't always have to invest in stocks - they can also be made up of bonds or other types of investments
Managed funds have higher fees than index funds.
an index fund follows an index, which is just a list. You could follow the top 200 companies in Australia, with an index called the ASX 200, or the top 50 companies in New Zealand, called the NZ
50. You could follow the top 100 companies in the UK, called the FTSE 100. They also don't have to be a list of top companies; you can have funds that follow a list of only female-run companies, or a list of the top ethical companies in the US.
The three most common indexes are the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which follows the top 30 companies in the US, and NASDAQ, which follows the top 1000 tech companies in the US.
You may have heard of an S&P 500 index fund. Different companies have their own funds based on the index, like Vanguard's S&P 500 fund or Smartshares' S&P 500 fund. They both invest in the same thing. It's like buying a plain black Nike shirt versus an identical plain black Adidas shirt: it's the same black shirt, just different branding. You can buy the fund through a broker (like buying the shirt through Asos or The Iconic) or from its investment company (e.g. buying the shirt directly from Nike or Adidas).
Both index funds and mutual funds have a high cost to entry, with mutual funds being the higher of the two. It's not uncommon to see a mutual fund that still asks for a $10000 minimum entry into the fund, though you're more likely to see them asking around $1000 to $5000 to begin with.
A downside of index funds and mutual funds in general is that their price is valued at the end of the day, and buying/selling of these funds occur after the stock market closes for the day.
ETFs or exchange-traded funds were introduced in the mid 1990s. They are similar to index funds, and ETFs can often invest in the exact same fund an index would. They invest in the same thing- so why do ETFs exist when index funds do the same job? There is a lower barrier to entry and you can buy and sell throughout the day. ETFs bypass the minimum $1000 usually needed to buy into index funds. You get to buy a fraction of the basket at a fraction of the cost.
The other issue with index funds and mutual funds in general is that they give you one price every day, and you take it or leave it. With ETFs, their price varies throughout the day. This means you can sell it or buy it throughout the day. It's one of the main differences between index funds and ETFs.
REITs, or real estate investment trusts, are the funds of the real estate world. Rather than investing in a basket of companies, you now get to invest in a basket of real estate: usually commercial real estate. They're more sensitive to interest rates and can drop quickly when rates rise. In some countries such as the US, their dividends are also taxed at a higher rate than the dividends of
stocks.
commodities are types of investments that help provide more diversification and they help to hedge against inflation. We don't like inflation in the stock market as it can cause stock prices to pull down. Commodities are stocks in physical things: metals like gold and silver, agricultural products like wheat and livestock, and energy like crude oil and natural gas. You can buy commodities directly, and the most common way to do so is through stocks or funds (e.g. an energy ETF).
Dividends are the other way you make money in the stock market, and they're a true form of passive income. It's basically how a company says thank you for holding their stocks in your portfolio; they pay you a small per cent of their profits, usually every quarter. A company that provides a wildly high dividend ('wildly high' is really anything that's above 6 per cent), is usually trying to lure investors into buying their shares because the company may be in trouble.
with dividends and capital gains, companies usually prefer to give you one or the other; they don't like to give you both.
Blended funds are picked to have a mixture of some growth companies that provide dividends, but also some companies that reinvest their dividends so they can continue to grow and create capital gains
Every three months companies release a report, known as 'company earnings', to say how their company has performed. They release financial statements that show their balance sheet (their assets and debts), their cash flow (how money moves within the company) and their income. Company earnings are a bit like a report card,
Stocks that get affected by economic growth are known as cyclical stocks. These are stocks such as luxury resorts, hotels or aeroplanes. 'Secular stocks' on the other hand, do well regardless of how the economy is doing. They're companies people need no matter what. The most common example is how people never stopped buying toilet paper, even during a pandemic.
Nearly half of investors check their stock performance at least once a day, and that's worrying. You do not want to be checking your portfolio too often. Why? As we've learned from money psychology, we hate losing money more than we love making money. We're more upset if we lose a $100 note than we are excited when we find $100. We feel the pain of loss about two times more intensely than we feel the pleasure of gain. It's a concept called loss aversion. The relationship between how often you check your portfolio and how much money you make is documented well; the more often you check your portfolio, the more likely you are to see a loss. An investor who checks their stocks daily instead of quarterly, has an increased risk of losing more money.
There's a popular phrase in the world of investing called 'buy and hold', and it's popular for a reason.
take the decade of your age and subtract it from 100. This is how much of your portfolio should go towards stocks.
transaction fees are the fee to buy a stock, e.g. $3 for every transaction; some brokerages have 'fee free' trading, but hike up fees in other areas
expense ratios:if you buy a fund, they'll have a percentage fee that the fund takes; this can range from 0.02% up to 1 to 2% if they're actively managed (it's important to note that a broker doesn't charge this, the fund does)
front- and backend fees: fees the brokerage takes to help set up and close down your account
management fees: some brokerages charge these and others charge an annual fee for using their platform
There are two fee payment mechanisms for financial advice. A fee-based method where
you pay a fee and a built-in commission to the investment product.
Limit buy order: this instructs your broker to buy stock at a certain price (e.g. if the stock is worth $50 but you won't buy it until it's down to $45, you can set a limit where it is automatically bought for you when the price drops).
After you sell shares, you need to pay capital gains tax on the profit you've made. This is often done at the end of the financial year along with your income tax filings. Your dividends are also taxed, and this is usually done in accordance with your tax bracket.
In order to have more control in my life, in order to have the freedom to live in alignment with my goals and values, and in order to be able to walk away from situations that did not serve me, I needed to be financially free. This is it in a nutshell, why you need to invest
Over the years, through osmosis, I have picked up a little knowledge but I have never had everything spelled out clearly. As I got older, it became embarrassing. I felt everyone knew more than I did and if I asked questions I would look like an idiot. This book answers all my idiotic questions. Yes, I could have figured it out earlier than in my 50s but I stupidly didn't. This book prefaces its financial information by pointing out why women have not been as involved in the market as men and it did make me feel that perhaps my lack of knowledge isn't entirely my fault.
It wasn't till 1900, only 120 years ago, when women in every state in the US were able to control property. In Australia and New Zealand, it was 1884. In the UK, it wasn't until 1922, and in India, 1956.That's only one to three generations ago where the women in our families could control their own property.
Only in the 1960s and 1970s were women able to open up a bank account, get their own credit card or even get a mortgage. Before the US Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed in 1974, single, widowed or divorced women in the US still had to bring in a man to co-sign credit applications.
Women in Ireland could only own their own homes after 1976. Single women in New Zealand were being denied mortgages even as late as 1982, some being told they needed their father to co-sign. How can we expect to know how to invest when less than 50 years ago we couldn't even open up a bank account? Wow. I was in high school in 1982 when that was happening.
a 2018 analysis by Starling Bank in the UK scanned over 300 finance articles and showed
70 per cent of money media directed at men discussed investing, while 65 per cent of money media directed at women were about spending less. Women are told financial planning is complex, threatening and 'a minefield'. 2018! Women are still getting this message!
I came from a largely patriarchal background, and the financial imbalance between men and women is the foundation it stands on. I saw how the provider of the family gets to call the shots.
Too many times I saw women be asked to quit their jobs and become housewives, only to have their lack of income thrown back in their face. I've seen women have their opinions not taken seriously because they aren't the breadwinner or don't have an impressive job title. I've seen women train for decades in their skillset, only to be pressured into giving up their careers to raise their children so their husbands could focus on their careers instead. The patriarchy needs that financial imbalance to work.Why the author decided to start investing
My mom did try and teach me. I recall her showing me a graph of compound interest and I was gobsmacked. She opened an IRA for me to invest my money from summer jobs. She tried to get me in the habit of looking at the financial section of the newspaper every day and I did try to do that, but it struck me as dull and I quit. My parents were smart with money, saving and investing, so I had good role models. However, I wish I had had my interest sparked so I would have decided on my own to learn more. And as we are thinking about regrets, man I wish I had bought some Apple stock in high school!
I highlighted up the wazoo on my Kindle:
inflation usually sits around the 2 per cent mark annually. This means the money you have sitting in your bank account drops in value by roughly 2 per cent every year. Every. Single. Year. It never fails to amaze me how little we were taught about inflation, and yet the loss of money affects so many people daily. Inflation was 4.06% in 2023 and 9.59% in 2022. I wish it was 2%!
The stock market has returned 7 to 10 per cent annually, on average, over the last 40-plus years. This doesn't mean the stock market stays between 7 and 10 per cent each year; some years it's up 20 per cent and some years down 5 per cent, but it averages out to 7 to 10 per cent in the long run. IN 2022 the stock market return was -19.44%. Negative. Thanks covid! In 2023 it was 24.23% Quite the roller coaster
Compound interest is a beautiful thing where, when assuming a conservative 7 per cent annual return over time, your money approximately doubles in value every 10 years.
The process of using borrowed money to invest is called 'margin investing'. Investors in training now know that using margin investing to invest in companies, especially ones without intrinsic value, is a recipe for disaster. The stocks may not go up, and may even go down, but you'll still have to pay back your loan plus interest.
when someone says they lost a huge chunk of their portfolio, it was because they took on a greater risk to begin with by investing in individual stocks. The value of a single stock can rise and drop much more rapidly than the entire market. You can lose 90 per cent of a single company in a day, but it is very difficult for a broad market index to drop 90 per cent in a day-nothing like this has happened yet.
the risk of losing money when investing in a broad market, low-cost fund is low. It's not impossible, but it's incredibly low.
In some circumstances, it makes sense to hire a fund manager to invest for you, for example, if you inherit a large sum of money after a death in the family and aren't emotionally in the right frame of mind to invest yourself, or if you would like a hand to hold during the ups and downs of the market. Sometimes people with ADHD or other neurodivergent tendencies would benefit from having an adviser who provides assistance as required.
100 base points is equal to one per cent, so if Google moves up 100 points, it just means the Google stock is up by 1 per cent. Rather than speaking about the movement of a company in points, percentages are much more intuitive. 'But that would mean people can understand investing, we don't want that!' said some financial rule maker, at some point in history. I assume.
1. track your spending
2. pay off your high-interest debt(interest over 7%)
3. set up automatic withdrawals to separate your investing money from your living expenses money
4. set up a three-month emergency fund kept in a high-yield savings account
5. set up retirement accounts.
What you need to do when starting to invest
It's like eBay, where on one side is someone trying to purchase the product and on the other side is the seller trying to sell the product, only in the stock market the 'product' is shares. It really is that simple.
A stock exchange is a location where stocks or shares are exchanged, i.e. bought and sold.
There are many stock exchanges around the world, many in the most prominent cities of large countries. In fact, there are 60 exchanges worldwide. Out of these, 16 of them are extremely large. Think of a stock exchange like a list. It lists all the companies that you can buy stocks in. This lets you see how much the price of that company stock is and how much the price has changed since yesterday.
the US stock market is made up of 13 US exchanges, such as their famous New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ exchange. Companies are limited to the exchange that lists them. If you want to invest in British Petroleum you'd invest through the London Stock Exchange. If you want to invest in Samsung you'd go through the Korea Exchange.
Sector stocks: Stocks can be broken down by sector, such as stocks in healthcare (e.g. pharmacy companies),utilities, IT, energy, etc
Companies that are worth over $10 billion are large cap stocks. Stocks in large cap companies tend to be more stable. Companies between $2 and $10 billion are mid cap. Small cap is less than 2 billion.
Bonds are when you get to act like a bank and loan your money to a government or company.
With bonds, the company or government are basically asking you to loan them money. They'll pay it back to you with a fixed amount of interest to say thank you for letting them borrow it. Bond rates are affected by interest rates, so when interest rates rise, people tend to buy more bonds. Bonds are much less risky than stocks.
Rather than holding your money in individual companies, you can put a bunch of companies together in a basket and invest in a piece of that basket, called a fund, either mutual or index. Some mutual funds have these companies chosen by a computer (e.g. an index fund), while other mutual funds are actively managed by a human being and called mutual or managed funds
funds don't always have to invest in stocks - they can also be made up of bonds or other types of investments
Managed funds have higher fees than index funds.
an index fund follows an index, which is just a list. You could follow the top 200 companies in Australia, with an index called the ASX 200, or the top 50 companies in New Zealand, called the NZ
50. You could follow the top 100 companies in the UK, called the FTSE 100. They also don't have to be a list of top companies; you can have funds that follow a list of only female-run companies, or a list of the top ethical companies in the US.
The three most common indexes are the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which follows the top 30 companies in the US, and NASDAQ, which follows the top 1000 tech companies in the US.
You may have heard of an S&P 500 index fund. Different companies have their own funds based on the index, like Vanguard's S&P 500 fund or Smartshares' S&P 500 fund. They both invest in the same thing. It's like buying a plain black Nike shirt versus an identical plain black Adidas shirt: it's the same black shirt, just different branding. You can buy the fund through a broker (like buying the shirt through Asos or The Iconic) or from its investment company (e.g. buying the shirt directly from Nike or Adidas).
Both index funds and mutual funds have a high cost to entry, with mutual funds being the higher of the two. It's not uncommon to see a mutual fund that still asks for a $10000 minimum entry into the fund, though you're more likely to see them asking around $1000 to $5000 to begin with.
A downside of index funds and mutual funds in general is that their price is valued at the end of the day, and buying/selling of these funds occur after the stock market closes for the day.
ETFs or exchange-traded funds were introduced in the mid 1990s. They are similar to index funds, and ETFs can often invest in the exact same fund an index would. They invest in the same thing- so why do ETFs exist when index funds do the same job? There is a lower barrier to entry and you can buy and sell throughout the day. ETFs bypass the minimum $1000 usually needed to buy into index funds. You get to buy a fraction of the basket at a fraction of the cost.
The other issue with index funds and mutual funds in general is that they give you one price every day, and you take it or leave it. With ETFs, their price varies throughout the day. This means you can sell it or buy it throughout the day. It's one of the main differences between index funds and ETFs.
REITs, or real estate investment trusts, are the funds of the real estate world. Rather than investing in a basket of companies, you now get to invest in a basket of real estate: usually commercial real estate. They're more sensitive to interest rates and can drop quickly when rates rise. In some countries such as the US, their dividends are also taxed at a higher rate than the dividends of
stocks.
commodities are types of investments that help provide more diversification and they help to hedge against inflation. We don't like inflation in the stock market as it can cause stock prices to pull down. Commodities are stocks in physical things: metals like gold and silver, agricultural products like wheat and livestock, and energy like crude oil and natural gas. You can buy commodities directly, and the most common way to do so is through stocks or funds (e.g. an energy ETF).
Dividends are the other way you make money in the stock market, and they're a true form of passive income. It's basically how a company says thank you for holding their stocks in your portfolio; they pay you a small per cent of their profits, usually every quarter. A company that provides a wildly high dividend ('wildly high' is really anything that's above 6 per cent), is usually trying to lure investors into buying their shares because the company may be in trouble.
with dividends and capital gains, companies usually prefer to give you one or the other; they don't like to give you both.
Blended funds are picked to have a mixture of some growth companies that provide dividends, but also some companies that reinvest their dividends so they can continue to grow and create capital gains
Every three months companies release a report, known as 'company earnings', to say how their company has performed. They release financial statements that show their balance sheet (their assets and debts), their cash flow (how money moves within the company) and their income. Company earnings are a bit like a report card,
Stocks that get affected by economic growth are known as cyclical stocks. These are stocks such as luxury resorts, hotels or aeroplanes. 'Secular stocks' on the other hand, do well regardless of how the economy is doing. They're companies people need no matter what. The most common example is how people never stopped buying toilet paper, even during a pandemic.
Nearly half of investors check their stock performance at least once a day, and that's worrying. You do not want to be checking your portfolio too often. Why? As we've learned from money psychology, we hate losing money more than we love making money. We're more upset if we lose a $100 note than we are excited when we find $100. We feel the pain of loss about two times more intensely than we feel the pleasure of gain. It's a concept called loss aversion. The relationship between how often you check your portfolio and how much money you make is documented well; the more often you check your portfolio, the more likely you are to see a loss. An investor who checks their stocks daily instead of quarterly, has an increased risk of losing more money.
There's a popular phrase in the world of investing called 'buy and hold', and it's popular for a reason.
take the decade of your age and subtract it from 100. This is how much of your portfolio should go towards stocks.
transaction fees are the fee to buy a stock, e.g. $3 for every transaction; some brokerages have 'fee free' trading, but hike up fees in other areas
expense ratios:if you buy a fund, they'll have a percentage fee that the fund takes; this can range from 0.02% up to 1 to 2% if they're actively managed (it's important to note that a broker doesn't charge this, the fund does)
front- and backend fees: fees the brokerage takes to help set up and close down your account
management fees: some brokerages charge these and others charge an annual fee for using their platform
There are two fee payment mechanisms for financial advice. A fee-based method where
you pay a fee and a built-in commission to the investment product.
Limit buy order: this instructs your broker to buy stock at a certain price (e.g. if the stock is worth $50 but you won't buy it until it's down to $45, you can set a limit where it is automatically bought for you when the price drops).
After you sell shares, you need to pay capital gains tax on the profit you've made. This is often done at the end of the financial year along with your income tax filings. Your dividends are also taxed, and this is usually done in accordance with your tax bracket.
August 25, 2023
Starts off referring to the Kardashians multiple times, Hermes Birkins being an investment, investing "being like learning skincare", it also refers to investing instead of upgrading to $400 ear pods...basically setting the tone for readers to be materialistic and insipid.
Chapter 2 it refers to the 1929 as happening in October 1928.
Goes on to make references of not paying $100 for a $20 make up sponge. Picking your investments like you do your circle of friends (the party one! the quiet one. the boring one) and how shares are the sexy bad boys but bonds are the responsible, reliable type of partner your parents would want you to have.
At least it had a couple of interesting sentences regarding the FIRE movement, but otherwise it was a cringe-making read.
Why is it "not important" to some people to have the shares held in THEIR OWN name?
Of course there were a few pages at the back advertising their online "MasterClass".
Just feels like a big advert for their podcast/masterclass/a local investment app in a book form.
Skip this book and read the books by Mary Holm and Lisa Dudson that provide local knowledge and actually useful information.
July 4, 2024
Ok…. great book that outlines key initiatives to get started in your finance journey. BUT. I have NEVER in my life read a book with so many grammatical errors and incorrect facts (ex. the dates surrounding great depression would change every other sentence). Did she have nobody edit this book???!!!!???
Also, I feel like the author does women a disservice on where we’ve made our marks in Finance over the last few decades and kind of sounded whiny ~if~ I’m being honest.
Also, I feel like the author does women a disservice on where we’ve made our marks in Finance over the last few decades and kind of sounded whiny ~if~ I’m being honest.
January 3, 2024
This book was neither good nor bad. I feel like this book was more strategy-based on how to invest I'm still left wondering how I apply the tools the author noted to actual use. I would say once someone gets into investing to read this book again to remember advice the author gave.
March 1, 2024
Took me a month to read and absorb. Currently investing so she convinced me lol
September 16, 2024
these books are all the same
January 30, 2025
4.5 stars, really. I found it highly enjoyable and so “big-sister-ly” in successfully demystifying the finance/investing world.
The main reason I picked up this book was because I agree a lot with Sim Kaur’s philosophies and mindsets around money, and like her approach and perspective surrounding the history of how the finance industry has misrepresented and gatekept from women!
The only 0.5 star missing is the figures and illustrations, because to me they made little sense and were very confusing. Luckily Sim explains *most* concepts well enough.
I also had mixed feelings about her constant phrase: “Investors in training should know that….” Some of her advice, while broad and well meaning, felt prescriptive, but only a minor portion! If anything, it might be helpful for others starting out.
I’d lend this book to all the girls I know!
The main reason I picked up this book was because I agree a lot with Sim Kaur’s philosophies and mindsets around money, and like her approach and perspective surrounding the history of how the finance industry has misrepresented and gatekept from women!
The only 0.5 star missing is the figures and illustrations, because to me they made little sense and were very confusing. Luckily Sim explains *most* concepts well enough.
I also had mixed feelings about her constant phrase: “Investors in training should know that….” Some of her advice, while broad and well meaning, felt prescriptive, but only a minor portion! If anything, it might be helpful for others starting out.
I’d lend this book to all the girls I know!
Read
July 28, 2024I was sooo skeptical of this going in but very pleasantly surprised!! Explained heaps of stuff in a good amount of detail, provided practical advice and dispelled a lot of rumors. I have never known how to get started investing and now I feel super informed.
December 4, 2024
on pg 54 she says “you are allowed to decide that travelling means more to you than investing” and that’s all I needed to hear
September 4, 2023
“I’m not sure who decided that if a white male does something, it must automatically be more complex compared with the jobs that women traditionally do.” All women should read this book. Empowering and educating without talking down to the reader. For the first time ever i’m actually going to have real questions to ask my financial advisor and that makes me so proud.
November 18, 2024
This book felt like chatting with a friend and made everything so easy to understand! Learned so much!!
March 7, 2025
If you are anything like me and don't know much about investing- a must read. I will be encouraging my daughter (and son) to both read it and start their investing journey young.
July 10, 2023
5 stars + more ! Couldn’t speak more highly of this book!! An excellent read. The kind of book everyone should be given the day they start working! Not just girls!
I’ve always been a lover of numbers and finance, however, always struggled with understanding the stock market. This book is by far the best content I’ve read that makes investing in the stock market easy to understand. Clear and well written - perfect for the complete beginner or the “I’ve tried, but seems too complicated”. By the end of this book you’ll feel empowered to enter into the investing world and make some educated decisions. This book has made me re think my priorities with investments and given me the confidence to explore more !
Thank you Simran - you’re an absolute legend of a woman!!
I’ve always been a lover of numbers and finance, however, always struggled with understanding the stock market. This book is by far the best content I’ve read that makes investing in the stock market easy to understand. Clear and well written - perfect for the complete beginner or the “I’ve tried, but seems too complicated”. By the end of this book you’ll feel empowered to enter into the investing world and make some educated decisions. This book has made me re think my priorities with investments and given me the confidence to explore more !
Thank you Simran - you’re an absolute legend of a woman!!
February 22, 2025
3.5
This book is great for beginner investors. It was a bit too basic for me but I definitely still learned some new information.
I really liked that the book was focused on empowering women through investing and that it has examples of real women speaking on their experiences with investing early and what they’ve learned. I also like that the author wrote in a way that’s very approachable and feels more conversational rather than an expert condescendingly lecturing you. I found it to be quite insightful in terms of the female perspective and how history has played into women being held back from success in the stock market.
However, I did find the book to be very repetitive at times - like to the point where it has the exact same sentence/explanation in multiple different chapters (which I guess kind of contradicts my earlier point about it not being condescending by assuming we need repeated/further explanation but yk).
Overall, it was good and helpful but I think I prefer Jordan Belfort’s The Wolf of Investing.
This book is great for beginner investors. It was a bit too basic for me but I definitely still learned some new information.
I really liked that the book was focused on empowering women through investing and that it has examples of real women speaking on their experiences with investing early and what they’ve learned. I also like that the author wrote in a way that’s very approachable and feels more conversational rather than an expert condescendingly lecturing you. I found it to be quite insightful in terms of the female perspective and how history has played into women being held back from success in the stock market.
However, I did find the book to be very repetitive at times - like to the point where it has the exact same sentence/explanation in multiple different chapters (which I guess kind of contradicts my earlier point about it not being condescending by assuming we need repeated/further explanation but yk).
Overall, it was good and helpful but I think I prefer Jordan Belfort’s The Wolf of Investing.
March 9, 2025
I thought this was a fantastic introduction to investing for those who did not have the social and cultural capital to learn these skills on our own. I want every woman in my life to read this book (and am so glad to be doing a buddy read with a friend so we can dissect everything we learned!). There are definitely some topics that I still don’t feel like I have a good grasp on, but that only makes me excited to dig deeper because of how accessible and forgiving this book is. It helps you understand the years and years of social and political barriers that have prevented women and people of color from building generational wealth, rather than shaming you for not learning sooner (I’m looking at you, Dave Ramsey). I also loved the inclusion of ethical investing as a way of “putting your money where your mouth is” in our capitalist society. Such a breath of fresh air!
February 20, 2023
I now know what a stock is guys😎💪
Everything is broken down in very easy to understand terms and it felt like you were just sitting down with the author Simran Kaur, and she was just explaining investing to you. Would definitely recommend to anyone who doesn’t understand investing as it makes it seem way less scary and understandable!!!
Everything is broken down in very easy to understand terms and it felt like you were just sitting down with the author Simran Kaur, and she was just explaining investing to you. Would definitely recommend to anyone who doesn’t understand investing as it makes it seem way less scary and understandable!!!
September 28, 2024
My manager has brought up the importance of investing on a few different occasions - I asked if she had any advice on how to start, and she recommended this book to me! I already knew a lot of the concepts from taking finance classes but definitely learned some history / new ways of thinking from this book. It’s meant for beginners, so it was a very broad overview and a pretty quick listen on Spotify. I do wish she went into more detail but I understand why she didn’t for this book. Brb I’m about to go buy some stocks I guess
August 21, 2025
absolutely the best book i have read this year - tons of bookmarked pages and highlighted points. this book made investing so digestible and engaging, with practical tools to plan and grow wealth sustainably for the long-term. a must-read for everyone!!
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