Survey: Women Don’t Know Enough About Personal Finance
25 August 2006The Washington Times has this article out on how many women, even in high income brackets, fear that they’ll end up as a “bag lady” – poor, lonely, and wandering around with no money. The numbers are suprisingly large:
Almost half are troubled by a “tremendous fear of becoming a bag lady” — 46 percent of women overall, and 48 percent of those with an annual income of more than $100,000. An additional 57 percent are sorry they had not learned more about money matters in school.
The second number here points at the problem – many women aren’t nearly as financially educated as they should be. Many schools don’t teach this stuff, and many parents don’t either. And to compound the problem, there’s a male-female difference in looking at things that puts personal finance and the stock market somewhere along the lines of cars in terms of interest to the two sexes. The study also talked about this interesting difference:
Women, for example, are twice as likely as men — 18 percent to 9 percent — to set aside a secret stash of money, the study found. Roughly the same number counseled their daughters to do the same.
I’d never even heard of anyone doing this. But looking around the Internet, it seems like it’s something many women do, as this post on Table for One explains. It’s apparently a way of keeping some money around that the husband doesn’t know about – either to spend when you want without approval, or, as the comments suggest, because the husband may have a problem saving. As an investment idea, it’s a poor one – much too close to mattress stuffing. Which, again, suggests that the women who are doing this need to educate themselves about their finances.
I’ve previously posted some suggestions on what women should do if they want to educate themselves about personal finance. There’s also an interesting, if somewhat heated, discussion going on about this article at Dr. Helen’s Psychology Blog. If you’ve never been there before, the comments are where much of the action is.
Discuss this on the Free the Drones Forums here.
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