Farnoosh Torabi/She Stacks
In 1968, an ad campaign targeting young Boomer women swept the nation with a young woman dressed as a superhero. The campaign was for a new cigarette brand called Virginia Slims but it was the slogan that really caught attention: You’ve Come A Long Way Baby!
While many social mores have changed since the late 60s, the feminist spirit of that early ad campaign slogan still resonates. It’s a mindset that Gen Z and Millennial women – granddaughters and daughters of the Boomer women that were targeted by the original campaign – are embracing.
These young women in their twenties and thirties are taking the financial world by storm. The online investing app Stash studied data on its users and found something revolutionary about these women. Gen Z and Millennial women are showing better money habits than their male peers. In fact, Gen Z women are almost 5% more likely than men to be saving on a monthly basis and are more likely to be saving on a consistent, automatic basis. Millennial women are just slightly behind them at 4.5% more likely to be saving on a monthly basis.
In some ways, it should be seen as unexpected. Having grown up in the technological age, diversity and tolerance are more important to them than to previous generations. They are actively encouraged to seek equality and that includes economic parity as well.
This doesn’t surprise Farnoosh Torabi, a nationally known personal finance expert. “With so many podcasts and so many books, the amount of content out there educating [women] about money is unprecedented. That is why we are seeing so many women get with the program.”
A New Way to Approach Personal Finance
But if Gen Z and Millennial women are different from previous generations, perhaps there needs to be a revolution in how these women are educated about managing their personal finances.
Enter Stacks House. “Stacks House is a pop-up with a purpose to educate women to reach their full financial potential,” says Torabi, a co-founder. “We want to start a movement on financial literacy and women in a way that women today want to consume financial information.”
Like the Museum of Ice Cream and the Rosé Mansion before it, Stacks House will be an interactive experience – this time for women and money. The pop up will launch in Los Angeles in April and move to various cities including Minneapolis, Austin and New York City. Each room will focus on a different financial moment – from setting financial goals to getting advice on how to save for retirement. But they will also have a youthful aspect to them. The financial education will be provided through rooms such as the Debt Boxing Gym and the Money Moves Room.
It will be a uniquely female experience that encourages community because, unlike earlier generations, Gen Z and Millennial women want to have a social media component to their financial literary learning. And like the Virginia Slims slogan, this pop-up has one that is more succinct and empowering: “She Stacks”.
“We wanted to build something that was simple, sexy and social as opposed to the products and services out there that are geared towards men and ‘feminizing’ them so to speak,” says Torabi who created the pop-up with co-founders Patience Ramsey and Kindra Meyer. “These are women who are educated and ambitious and want to evolve their financial lives. They just need to get more confidence and get the right resources.”
The Women and Wealth Niche
The idea of targeting women isn’t a new one in the wealth space. In fact, over the past decade, the finance world has come to see women as an untapped niche market. Boston Consulting Group found that by 2020, women are expecting to hold $72 trillion or 32% of all private wealth and that this number will increase in the years to come.
Women-targeted money and wealth management has sprung up throughout the personal finance space to mixed success. Firms like Ellevest, WorthFM and almost every major wealth management firm has focused on maximizing this market. While WorthFM closed its doors in Summer 2018, others continue to try to make significant inroads into this market.
But Torabi is targeting the Millennial and Gen Z female market, as she does with her SoMoney Podcast. She views this pop-up as something different.
“We want to use this as a listening tour to meet these women around the country and understand who [they] are. That data will inform the 2.0 of Stacks House and what is our next offering. Is it a subscription service or is it more events or an app of some kind? We have a lot of ideas, but we don’t want to assume just because we like it that it is necessary [for this group to understand money],” she explains.
It is this ‘see what happens’ mindset that hopefully will allow Stacks House to pivot to where Gen Z and Millennial women want their finances to evolve. To captivate these young women, it has to deliver the right mix of style and substance.
You’ve Come A Long Way Baby
Ultimately Gen Z and Millennial women will dictate how they want to be educated in the personal finance space. If they embrace the Stacks House model, we may move to a personal finance education where interactive moments help move women ahead. Either way, these women will change the personal finance model to one that best serves women and financial equality.
After all, you’ve come a long way baby.
“>
Farnoosh Torabi
Farnoosh Torabi/She Stacks
In 1968, an ad campaign targeting young Boomer women swept the nation with a young woman dressed as a superhero. The campaign was for a new cigarette brand called Virginia Slims but it was the slogan that really caught attention: You’ve Come A Long Way Baby!
While many social mores have changed since the late 60s, the feminist spirit of that early ad campaign slogan still resonates. It’s a mindset that Gen Z and Millennial women – granddaughters and daughters of the Boomer women that were targeted by the original campaign – are embracing.
These young women in their twenties and thirties are taking the financial world by storm. The online investing app Stash studied data on its users and found something revolutionary about these women. Gen Z and Millennial women are showing better money habits than their male peers. In fact, Gen Z women are almost 5% more likely than men to be saving on a monthly basis and are more likely to be saving on a consistent, automatic basis. Millennial women are just slightly behind them at 4.5% more likely to be saving on a monthly basis.
In some ways, it should be seen as unexpected. Having grown up in the technological age, diversity and tolerance are more important to them than to previous generations. They are actively encouraged to seek equality and that includes economic parity as well.
This doesn’t surprise Farnoosh Torabi, a nationally known personal finance expert. “With so many podcasts and so many books, the amount of content out there educating [women] about money is unprecedented. That is why we are seeing so many women get with the program.”
A New Way to Approach Personal Finance
But if Gen Z and Millennial women are different from previous generations, perhaps there needs to be a revolution in how these women are educated about managing their personal finances.
Enter Stacks House. “Stacks House is a pop-up with a purpose to educate women to reach their full financial potential,” says Torabi, a co-founder. “We want to start a movement on financial literacy and women in a way that women today want to consume financial information.”
Like the Museum of Ice Cream and the Rosé Mansion before it, Stacks House will be an interactive experience – this time for women and money. The pop up will launch in Los Angeles in April and move to various cities including Minneapolis, Austin and New York City. Each room will focus on a different financial moment – from setting financial goals to getting advice on how to save for retirement. But they will also have a youthful aspect to them. The financial education will be provided through rooms such as the Debt Boxing Gym and the Money Moves Room.
It will be a uniquely female experience that encourages community because, unlike earlier generations, Gen Z and Millennial women want to have a social media component to their financial literary learning. And like the Virginia Slims slogan, this pop-up has one that is more succinct and empowering: “She Stacks”.
“We wanted to build something that was simple, sexy and social as opposed to the products and services out there that are geared towards men and ‘feminizing’ them so to speak,” says Torabi who created the pop-up with co-founders Patience Ramsey and Kindra Meyer. “These are women who are educated and ambitious and want to evolve their financial lives. They just need to get more confidence and get the right resources.”
The Women and Wealth Niche
The idea of targeting women isn’t a new one in the wealth space. In fact, over the past decade, the finance world has come to see women as an untapped niche market. Boston Consulting Group found that by 2020, women are expecting to hold $72 trillion or 32% of all private wealth and that this number will increase in the years to come.
Women-targeted money and wealth management has sprung up throughout the personal finance space to mixed success. Firms like Ellevest, WorthFM and almost every major wealth management firm has focused on maximizing this market. While WorthFM closed its doors in Summer 2018, others continue to try to make significant inroads into this market.
But Torabi is targeting the Millennial and Gen Z female market, as she does with her SoMoney Podcast. She views this pop-up as something different.
“We want to use this as a listening tour to meet these women around the country and understand who [they] are. That data will inform the 2.0 of Stacks House and what is our next offering. Is it a subscription service or is it more events or an app of some kind? We have a lot of ideas, but we don’t want to assume just because we like it that it is necessary [for this group to understand money],” she explains.
It is this ‘see what happens’ mindset that hopefully will allow Stacks House to pivot to where Gen Z and Millennial women want their finances to evolve. To captivate these young women, it has to deliver the right mix of style and substance.
You’ve Come A Long Way Baby
Ultimately Gen Z and Millennial women will dictate how they want to be educated in the personal finance space. If they embrace the Stacks House model, we may move to a personal finance education where interactive moments help move women ahead. Either way, these women will change the personal finance model to one that best serves women and financial equality.
After all, you’ve come a long way baby.
