While men are still out-earning women at work, experts have found that women outperform men in long-term investing. According to Fidelity Investments, women earn 0.4 percent higher returns than men on average. However seemingly small that number may be now, it quickly tallies up over the years to equal a significant amount of money. The problem is that since women rake in fewer dollars, women usually invest more conservatively to protect the amount they have. AKA when women make less and invest less, they earn less returns. But women investing more and earlier may just be the secret to closing the gender wealth gap. The stock market presents endless amounts of growth opportunities, so experts say it's more beneficial for women to invest more money earlier, in order to allow investments to grow. This is called goal-based investing, a long-term investing strategy devised to meet financial goals instead of just beating the market. So ladies, it's time to take charge of your financial decisions and embrace investing.