Who deals with the stock brokers and manages the high yield investments in your household? And who tinkers with the budgeting tools?
I don’t want to start a gender war, but I found a couple of interesting surveys on finance that seem to be at odds with each other. The first one involves 3,000 responses to a questionnaire which were gathered to show how men and women view their personal finances. This particular survey reveals how men seem to be much more comfortable and confident about money than women are.
Image from The Financial Brand
Now on the other hand, there’s a survey that’s been linked to the site 60DaysToChange.com, where respondents were asked to reveal their top two concerns regarding financial matters, and the answers were very similar between men and women: debt and budgeting. But the notable thing here is that more women participated in it — “nearly 75% of survey participants were women, indicating that women are more likely than men to seek outside guidance during tough financial times.”
There’s also this international survey that indicates that when it comes to money, women are more responsible than men, with findings that point out that women are less likely to get into debt and are more likely to strive harder to become financially independent. The international study was actually held in 12 countries, so could this imply that gender has a bigger influence on the way we look at money than does nationality or culture?
So which of these findings do you believe? Fascinating how different studies can be in such disagreement.
How Does Your Household Manage Money Stress?
The 60 Days To Change study also tells us something we already know: “over half of the survey participants (57%) admit to having a great deal of money and work stress.” In these somber economic times we middle class and working folks do feel kind of stressed. What kind of stressful financial events do we normally experience? A lot of problems that many families face are due to having limited household incomes to tide them over. I’ll ask this tough question: can a modern family live on one salary? Some wise old man will say that it depends on the amount of wages that the breadwinners bring in. But if you’re in a middle class family, you know the answer — you’d affirm that no, it’s a challenge to be living on one salary today, and it would be no surprise that a dual income is required just to make ends meet.
Also, these days, it’s rare to have a family or a couple who doesn’t carry any form of debt. The latest figures indicate that American consumers as a whole owe the staggering sum of more than 2 trillion dollars on their credit cards and retail credit. That sure is something to be stressed about.
Many households now require the teamwork of both wives and husbands (or couples) to survive the financial stress that modern lifestyles bring.
Who’s Better At Managing Money: Men or Women?
This brings to my mind the saying that behind every successful man there is a very smart woman (or something of that nature). I can only say that without the savvy of my wife I would probably be a wino living on the streets of a big city, stretching my hand for a charitable donation. Here are a few more points that are not too flattering for the men:
MSN Money says that we macho men tend to show off with money to conquer the opposite sex: “In other words, the desire to attract a member of the opposite sex can influence a man to lay down the plastic a little more frequently than perhaps is best for his own financial health.”
And what about these additional revelations from the same article: “Results (of yet another survey) show that women are considerably more likely than men to shred their credit card offers (55% versus 43%), while men are more likely to throw them in the garbage (34% versus 25%).” Hmmm….throwing the offers in the garbage is a highly risky thing to do, as any skillful identity thief will tell you. Now if we are to make conclusions based on this article, you’d wonder whether it’s the ladies who are thriftier and more careful about their money than the men are! But I don’t think it’s necessarily that cut and dried.
Whether or not it’s the men or the women who are better at managing money, we do owe it to ourselves to try to work together as a financial team at home, for the sakes of our families.
So what kind of differences have you noticed between the way men and women handle their money? How does it work in your household?
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t like to admit it but my wife far exceeds me when it comes to money management. We are the weaker sex! Goodby.
I can agree with a lot of these points, but just from looking at the image of the first survey, I am prone to think that it may have been staged with a bias. The woman stands there in her jeans and vest, looking very casual and carefree. While the man is in a suit with a serious expression. Now, I realize the image and the statistics are two different things, but the way in which the surveyor presents the information suggests bias.
Personally, I know many females that spend, spend, spend. Though none of them are in a serious amount of debt. I also know many males that drop a lot of cash consistently. The difference in financial responsibility may also have to do with the fact that men tend to earn more than women, making their spending more affordable. I have noticed that the males I know make more larger purchases, while the females tend to make smaller purchases more frequently. Either way, the bills for these purchases can get overwhelming if they exceed your income. I think it’s better just to spend well below what you have and always keep a substantial buffer.
In my experience, women are MUCH better than men at handling money.
Maybe because there is an income gap, women understand that they must be the best they possibly can be at this skill. Perhaps women are move concerned about their skills but that worry may be one of the reasons they are better at doing a good job. They are more aware of the need to be on top of this.
This is clearly my subjective generalization. But least, that’s been my experience as a professional.
I really have to question the accuracy of a study that says that 90% of men and only 74% of women pay their bills on time each month. I honestly can’t imagine that is accurate. Seriously, would anyone buy that only 10% of men have problems paying bills on time? I wonder if this is skewed by fewer men participating in household finances and assuming everything is good or men simply being more likeley to exaggerate their financial success?
I tend to think it has less to do with gender than it does with life’s experience. The one who’s had the most recent or severe brush with financial catastrophe seems to be the most focused on money matters, irregardless of gender.
There probably is some self-denial in the answers. Without a survey that strictly defines the questions, it’s easy to tell yourself you are in the “good money management” camp — and perhaps men will make this mental mistake more often since much of their self-image is wrapped around money. What would be interesting is to have another survey that asks “how much %” instead of “do you” and then compare against this survey.
True, surveys only represent a sampling, but I find it interesting, nevertheless, how one survey favors one gender so resoundly while another has the completely opposite conclusion. So which is it? From past studies I’ve read, it seems that men are great with certain aspects of finance (e.g. investing, earning money, etc) while women are stronger at other aspects (such as saving, finding frugal opportunities, etc).
These strengths are so complementary though, that if you get to have this kind of teamwork at your home, you could really find yourself in good shape with your finances!
My husband and I discuss decisions and he give me his input so that our decisions are really made as a unit. I, however, do the actual handling of the money and processes.
Everyone is different. I don’t think gender has that much to do with it. I keep meeting people in life who are in two categories: Savers or Spenders…
I agree with Ellen and Mossy. My first thought was, “How many of the respondents live in total denial?”
Amusing. But you’re right, it’s not a question of who’s better. Particularly more so if you’re a couple with kids, it’s how you play as a team that would make the financial aspect of life more bearable and less stressful.
Men are better than women in financial matters. Although men currently make more than women in the workplace men need to show women their financial power as a show of strength to attract them. Attraction used to be based on a man being physically stronger than the other and now it’s his money. Affirmative action is hurting men in the workplace and needs to stop soon or the disparity will reverse. If the best person is not picked for a certain job then our country will not do as well as other countries. Back to the topic at hand, women spend way more than men on many different things including hair, nails, etc.
@Brad,
Although traditionally, men are the hunters and bring home the bacon, women are the ones who may be seen as managing the money brought in. So in that respect, I’ll agree with you. Perhaps there are two different tasks here — making money and managing it, with men doing a better job making it and women doing the managing.
Trying to bite my tongue.