Women Are Setting Themselves Apart From Men Financially

Gender differences can be a fairly touchy subject. If you think about men and women in general terms, you have to carefully choose your words so you don’t sound like you’re endorsing stereotypical traits. Often the whole thing seems easier to neglect and stick to thinking about “people,” as if men and women were exactly the same. The reality is that there are a lot of myths and stigmas surrounding the financial habits of men verses women and those need to be examined in the context of actual research. Here are some of the top ways women are setting themselves apart from men financially.

• Women tend to be more price conscious when making purchases. For example, a 2014 survey conducted by Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions surveyed over 30,000 online consumers and found that women are much more likely to be willing to switch to store brands over name brand products.
• Women are more focused on long term goals for themselves and their families. A range of surveys show that women are doing more research, are stronger at balancing their savings to their ambitions, trade less and appear calmer during market uprisings. According to a study conducted by Openfolio, an online investment-sharing website, women who invested outpaced their male counterparts by an aggregate amount of 0.4% in 2014. In the next year which was a tumultuous time for the markets, women lost 2.5% on average compared to a loss of 3.8% for men. In another 2015 survey presented by CNN Business, the data indicates that women are more wiser about investing than they give themselves credit for. Men tended to over confidently invest causing them to have average returns were lower than women.

• Women tend to approach risk in a different way, being more conservative with their trading. In contrast, men are more motivated to invest and trade more aggressively, even if the odds are that they’ll strike out more often. This technique can backfire and result in major losses. In a 2017 survey conducted by Fidelity, it revealed that in 2016, women’s investment portfolios gained 0.4 percent more than men’s.
• Women tend to carry less debt than men. In 2016 results from a sampling of Experian’s consumer credit database showed that women had an average credit score of 675 compared to a score of 670 by men. This same study also revealed that women have 3.7% less debt on average than men.

All of these studies indicate that women are advancing in the realm of personal finance and often times outpacing men in certain areas. Be encouraged that women just like you are strengthening their financial portfolios each and every day. If you are ready to take charge and create a plan for financial stability, contact one of our trusted SJK Wealth Management advisors to get started on your journey today!