This guide is grounded in real questions from real women: it’s based on insights from a 2023 Ask the Expert session in which Savvy Ladies volunteers Ravi Patel, Ross Krause, CFP®, MBA, MSA y Evan Press, CFP® answered saving and investing questions from the Dress for Success community. Plus, it includes advice from Savvy Ladies founder Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA®.
If saving and investing feel intimidating, you’re not alone. Many women delay getting started simply because it’s hard to know where to begin.
The good news? You don’t need a large income, perfect timing, or expert knowledge to begin. What you do need is a simple framework that helps you take the right steps in the right order. Whether you’re starting with $50 or $5,000, the most important step is simply getting started.
Start With Saving: Your Financial Safety Net
Before you think about investing, it’s essential to have savings in place. Savings act as your financial cushion, protecting you from unexpected expenses like medical bills, job changes, or home repairs—without forcing you to rely on credit cards or loans.
A good place to begin is an fondo de emergencia, typically three to six months of essential living expenses. This money should be easy to access and kept in a safe, low-risk account, such as a high-yield savings account or money market account.
How Much Should You Be Saving?
There’s no single “right” amount to save, but there es a helpful way to think about it.
Savvy Ladies Helpline volunteers emphasize that saving works best when it’s tied to your goals and income, not a rigid daily rule. According to Ross Krause, CFP®, MBA, MSA, many people who plan to retire at an average age aim to save around 15% of their paycheck each month. This should increase to 20–30% if you hope to retire earlier or pursue more ambitious goals like extensive travel or philanthropy.
"Ahorros does not mean money in the bank earning .1% interest. You need that money working for you and at the bare minimum keeping up with inflation”, notes Krause.
Rather than focusing on saving a little every day, Ravi Patel recommends looking at your presupuesto mensual and asking what you’re saving for. Once you have an emergency fund in place, setting clear goals—like a future car purchase or home project—and turning them into monthly savings targets can make saving feel more manageable and intentional. “For example, a $12,000 used car you want to buy 12 months from now. That’s $1,000 a month that you might want to allocate and build in a separate cuenta de ahorros that you don’t touch for anything else,” explains Patel.
The key takeaway: saving doesn’t have to be perfect or daily. What matters most is having a clear plan that reflects your priorities and grows with you.
How to Make Saving Easier
Advice from Savvy Ladies Founder Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA®.
Saving often sounds simple in theory. But in real life, it can feel frustrating, restrictive, or impossible to sustain. According to Savvy Ladies founder Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA®, the key to saving consistently is making the process work con your life instead of against it.
Here are a few principles she regularly shares with women who feel stuck when it comes to saving:
- Set a goal. As with any commitment, a clear, concrete goal (i.e. a down payment for a home or retiring at 50) is the first step.
- Pick a number you can afford. Saving is a bit like dieting: if you push too hard, you will fail. If you can only spare $50 per month, let it be your intention to save $50.
- Make it automatic. Not only can saving be dreary, with all the pleasures you have to surrender, but it is easy to forget, too. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account. Done!
- Cash in on free money. If your employer offers to match contributions to your 401(k), take him or her up on it! It’s free money, and in the best of places because it will grow tax deferred for years and years to come.
Regain strength from frequent reminders. It takes a lot of willpower to give up pleasures in the present for a better life in the distant future, and inevitably, there will be times when you feel discouraged. When this happens, regain the motivation by revisiting your goals.
How to Start Investing (and Why Waiting Can Cost You)
Once you’ve established a basic savings cushion, investing becomes the next step in growing your money over time. Unlike savings, investing allows your money to work for you, helping you keep up with inflation and build long-term wealth.
Many women wait to invest because they fear losing money or think they need a “perfect” moment to begin. In reality, waiting too long can be more costly than starting imperfectly. Time is one of the most powerful tools investors have, and even small amounts invested consistently can make a meaningful difference over the years.
Investing doesn’t mean picking individual stocks or taking big risks. For most people, diversified investments like mutual funds or ETFs offer a more accessible, lower-stress way to participate in the market.
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions by beginner investors, answered by Savvy Ladies volunteers Ravi Patel, Ross Krause, CFP®, MBA, MSA y Evan Press, CFP®.
LEER: Cómo empezar a invertir en el mercado de valores por Ann Wilson
I want to invest but I’m afraid to pick the wrong thing. How do I start?
Fear is one of the most common barriers to investing—and it’s completely normal. Markets are often portrayed as unpredictable or out of your control, which can make getting started feel risky or intimidating.
According to Savvy Ladies Helpline volunteer Ravi Patel, it helps to remember that markets are ultimately a reflection of everyday economic activity. While there are ups and downs along the way, long-term growth has historically rewarded investors who stay invested and avoid reacting to short-term noise.
Before investing, Ravi recommends making sure a few basics are in place:
- High-interest consumer debt is paid down
- An emergency fund of about six months of expenses is established
- Housing costs are manageable (have a house or mortgage payment that is a small percentage of your take home pay)
- You’re already contributing regularly toward retirement (often 10–15% of income)
After that, you are free to start investing. But you want to make sure you are investing over the long haul. Money you’ll need in the next few years should stay in safer, more liquid accounts. Long-term money, on the other hand, can be invested in diversified funds with solid track records over 5–10 years which meet or beat the index.
“Pick a few index funds that are plain vanilla, and just let the money sit in them for as long as possible. Keep it simple and don’t micromanage it. Trust me, there are better things you want to be doing with your life than watch your investments everyday and worry about the market”, advises Ross Krause.
The biggest risk for many beginners isn’t investing at the “wrong” time—it’s staying on the sidelines and never getting started at all. The earlier you start, the more your money will compound over your life. Yes, it is completely possible that you invest now, and the market drops, and you lose money, but it’s just as likely the opposite happens. The worst thing you can do is wait on the sidelines and be paralyzed by fear and never get started.
How should I invest if I can’t afford to lose money?
For investors with little room for error, such as single parents or those on tighter budgets, risk management and discipline matter more than complexity.
Savvy Ladies Helpline volunteer Evan Press, CFP® recommends starting with a liquid emergency fund of at least three months of essential expenses. This safety net helps ensure you won’t need to rely on high-interest credit cards or sell investments during a downturn.
For long-term investing, Evan often suggests target-date funds offered by providers like Vanguard, Fidelity, or T. Rowe Price. These funds:
- Combine stocks and bonds in one investment
- Are inexpensive and make the investment decisions for you
- Automatically become more conservative as you approach your target date (they move into more bonds and fewer stocks)
- Are designed for money you won’t need for 10–20 years or more
Perhaps most importantly, Evan emphasizes discipline over perfection. A realistic, automated contribution you can stick with through both good and bad markets is far more effective than an aggressive plan that falls apart when volatility hits.
Markets are up more often than they are down—we just don’t know which years those will be. Staying consistent, keeping things simple, and giving your investments time to grow can make a powerful difference over time.
“A good plan you can stick to will always beat a great plan that you can’t stick to”, concludes Press.
More Investing Resources
Saving and investing are skills you build over time, not decisions you have to get “right” all at once. The resources below are designed to help you continue learning, apply what you’ve read here, and get guidance when you need it.
- Ask a question on our Savvy Ladies Línea gratuita de ayuda financiera and get matched with one of our volunteers for one-on-one, unbiased and confidential guidance.
- Read our investing guide, Cree, haga crecer y proteja su patrimonio: una guía inteligente para invertir con confianza
- Programa de conocimientos financieros para mujeres inteligentes: Take best-in-class financial courses by industry experts, for free.
- Hoja de cálculo presupuestario – Download for free
- Download our free Financial Well-being Workbook
- Book recommendations from our Helpline volunteers: Total Money Makeover by Dame Ramsey and El millonario de al lado por Thomas Stanley
- Explore hands-on learning: try any tutorial/app or video game that lets you run a virtual business and has real accounting/finance tracking. You can apply the same lessons you learn running a successful business to your own personal finances.
