A growing number of affluent women are now earning as much as their male counterparts, yet a lack of confidence about investing is preventing many of these women to invest the money they earn, according to a new study by Wells Fargo.

Researchers interviewed 600 women in the US - with an average of $455,000 in liquid assets and $145,000 in household income - about wealth, investing and retirement.

The study found that 41 per cent of affluent women were “not at all” confident about their ability to invest, even though 44 per cent of them are earning more or as much as their partner.

Even though the women have wealth and strong savings values, only 8 per cent of those surveyed said they were “highly confident” about investing.

“Today’s affluent women are financially savvy working women, but investing confidence doesn’t follow hand in hand with increased wealth,” said Karen Wimbish, director of retail retirement at Wells Fargo.

“Through our research, we see that investing confidence seems to be the linchpin to so many other positive behaviors that would provide an opportunity for women to grow their savings and to build a solid foundation in retirement.”

Even though many women point towards confidence as the key factor for investing, more than half of them said they have no interest in learning about investing in stocks.

Wimbish acknowledges that confidence is important, but that women with such resources should also be willing to learn more about investments in order to grow their wealth. In this respect, the survey found that 41 per cent of affluent women do not believe the stock market is the best way to grow savings, with about a third (34 per cent) saying they thought the stock market is “too risky.” Some 64 per cent of the women even said they have become more risk averse as their net worth grew.

Similarly, many women (39 per cent) consider having money to support a certain lifestyle as key to a successful retirement, and as such are looking to work with a pay check for as long as possible. Consequently, the women said that a nest-egg averaging $1.5 million was desirable, with an expected retirement age of 66. Yet, most of them have not made relevant moves to sustain their expected lifestyle during retirement, as less than 40 per cent of the affluent women surveyed have a written retirement plan.

Women have made so much progress professionally and should leverage what they already have to create that “pay check” in retirement and have financial freedom, Wimbish added.

The telephone study was conducted by Koski Research and funded by San Francisco, CA-headquartered Wells Fargo.