Men Aren’t Giving Women Credit on Money Issues March 14, 2006
There’s an interesting article on men, women, and money over at CNN.
The gap between the financial issues that people care about most and what their spouses think they hold important may not be the Grand Canyon. But some couples will need an awfully big bridge to get across it.
For instance, our survey found that only 27% of men believe their wives think having the right investments is very important. Yet nearly half of women say they do care (approximately the same proportion as men).
Likewise, only 45% of men say that having cash stashed for emergencies is very important to their spouse vs. 67% of women who believe it’s crucial.
Women come much closer in gauging what matters to men. If anything, they tend to give guys too much credit, believing their husbands care more about paying off debt and saving for big purchases than men actually do.
When asked about their family’s income, both men and women say they earn more than their spouses believe they make, according to a study by Jay Zagorsky, a research scientist at Ohio State University. Overall, Zagorsky found, the typical husband says his household earns 5% more and is 10% wealthier than the wife says, while the wife reports that the family owes about $500 more than her husband says.
There’s a huge gap on money issues with men and women. It seems true with some of my friends and with my parents. My father never gave credit to my mom with managing money. He thinks that she doesn’t know anything about saving and only knows about spending. It’s partly true, but he’s also not helping the situation by not allowing her to learn about managing personal finances. As a result, my mom has no experience or knowledge on investing or retirement funds. He figures that he should worry about bringing home the money while she should take care of the family. It’s old school, and he’s worked hard to give the family a comfortable life financially, but at the expense of my mom’s knowledge with money. I think it’s a tough balance, but we should all encourage eachother to learn about money, so when emergencies arise, we’ll be better prepared.
Source:
Men, women…and money
By Pat Regnier and Amanda Gengler