Women and investment in 8 questions

Interview with Anna Logacheva and Mariana Mergulhao, creators of the Cash Confidences podcast.

🤝 Enerfip X Cash Confidences: a little background
At Enerfip, we are convinced that responsible investment should be accessible to everyone. That's why we're partnering with the Cash Confidences podcast, founded by Mariana Mergulhao and Anna Logacheva, to help women take control of their financial future.

As part of a challenge, this new program will help 60 women invest for the first time and take control of their financial future. Julien Hostache will host a masterclass on responsible investment. This partnership focuses on financial education and sharing the essential keys to investing with confidence. As a benchmark in financial education for women, Cash Confidences encourages you to take charge of your financial future!

Our goal is to feminize our community, by offering adapted tools and inspiring testimonials to all women who want to take action.

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👀 Discover our white paper “Feminize yourself with investing!”

1 – Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your background?

🎤 Mariana: I studied business, with a specialization in finance, in Brazil before joining HEC for a Master's degree in entrepreneurship. That's where I met Anna. Initially, we created a group among friends in which we simply talked about investing and financial issues, like salary management...

Then, we thought about how to go beyond that, notably by launching a podcast! As soon as Cash Confidences, our podcast on women's relationship with money, was released, we received many private messages from listeners wanting to go further and take action. That's why we decided to launch the Cash Confidences challenge, which concretely helps women invest!

🎤 Anna: My background is a little different. Of course, I studied at HEC with Mariana, but before that, I studied literature at ENS in letters and cinema. Unlike Mariana, who is comfortable with numbers thanks to her financial education, money has always been a subject that scared me. I grew up with the idea that finances were complicated and that it wasn't for me. What fascinates me is that in France, the discussion about money is almost non-existent, especially from a psychological point of view. We mainly talk about investment projects, while one of the reasons why women don't invest lies in their psychological blocks and not because of their lack of knowledge.

We wanted to deconstruct these beliefs, and especially this good student syndrome who wants to know everything before getting started, by offering a caring and uninhibited approach to investing. This challenge combines psychological dimensions and financial education without falling into the trap of a discourse that would be either too patronizing or too advanced.

2 – Can you tell us about Cash Confidences in a few words?

🎤 Mariana: Cash Confidences helps women achieve financial independence. Every month, we publish a podcast episode on a central theme related to money (e.g., how to invest in rental property, how to manage money as a couple, etc.). We also send a free newsletter once a month with insights from the Cash Confidences Challenge, which is a free training program (every 2 months). It gives the keys to women who want to take action and invest.

👀 Discover the Cash Confidences podcast!

3 – What prompted you to launch this project? Was there a particular trigger?

🎤 Anna: The origin of the project comes from our desire to empower women and help them gain autonomy, but we didn't really know which angle to choose. Initially, we thought we would focus on mental health, but we realized that money is at the heart of everything, both personally and professionally.

We have the legitimacy of having two different profiles: on the one hand, Mariana, who comes from the world of finance, and on the other, me, with a more empathetic vision linked to the psychological blocks that each of us can have. Our complementarity is the strength of Cash Confidences!

4 – What are the main obstacles women face when it comes to investing and how can we overcome them?

🎤 Anna: The lack of references is a real problem: there are few visible female figures in the world of investment. Many women still associate investing with the risk of being scammed and prefer saving, which seems safer to them. We have already been told, “I don’t want to invest because I’m afraid of being scammed and losing money.” However, with inflation, saving without investing means losing purchasing power.

The other obstacle we hear is the fact that investing is a taboo subject in society, especially in families. We don't talk about it at all, which makes the desire to earn more money almost shameful.

5 – Do you think responsible investing attracts more women?

🎤 Anna: From what we've observed, responsible investing generates real interest among women. They often have a more concrete vision of the impact of their investments, linked to the materiality of the projects they support. Women tend to be more aware of the social and environmental impact of their financial choices, compared to men who focus more on numbers and profitability.

🎤 Mariana: Indeed, there is an interesting bias: men are generally more attracted to financial aspects such as interest rates, while women are more interested in the projects themselves. They want to know what their money is for, what values ​​it represents, and what impact it will have on society.

Furthermore, women are generally motivated by the idea of ​​contributing to a better future for future generations. This impact investing discourse resonates particularly with them, because it aligns with their deepest values.

6 – What advice would you give to a woman who wants to start investing?

🎤 Mariana: Take action! Start! Dare! You shouldn't wait until you understand everything before starting. Often, we have an all-or-nothing vision, but you don't need to invest a large sum. It's possible to invest little by little.

As with sports, you progress by practicing. To continue the comparison, I would say that investing is a marathon, not a sprint!

🎤 Anna: I would add that it is extremely important to build an investment project and find your “why”. Why do you want to invest? For your retirement? To finance a personal project? This “why” is essential, because it allows you to build a coherent investment strategy.

7 – What place do you give to humor and storytelling in your approach to finance?

🎤 Anna: Humor and storytelling are essential levers for making finance more accessible and engaging. A technical subject immediately becomes more lively when it is told in the form of a story, with a dynamic tone and an attractive format.

Today, capturing the audience's attention requires short, impactful formats. Once their interest is piqued, our challenge is to keep them engaged for longer: first 20 minutes, then 40, then 1 hour... And when we succeed, it's a real victory, because in a world saturated with information, achieving this level of engagement is a major challenge!

🎤 Mariana: I quite agree with Anna! Finance may seem boring, but there's something magical about it in the sense that it can change lives if it's well understood. We want to demonstrate that understanding your money means taking control of your future.

8 – What are your next projects and ambitions for Cash Confidences?

🎤 Anna: This year, we aim to support 300 women in our investment challenge. The goal is to experiment, analyze, and refine our approach to understand which messages resonate best and which levers truly encourage action.

At the same time, we are preparing the launch, in 2026, of an application designed to integrate into women's daily lives and allow them to easily invest, between €10 and €1,000. A book is also being written!

Finally, we will organize our first physical event in Paris in October and will publish a barometer at the end of the year to measure the evolution of trends and behaviors in female investment.