WOMAN AND MONEY

WOMAN AND MONEY

The financial battle of the sexes
Women are earning - and spending - more than ever before.

But they also have greater demands on their cash and as the divorce rate rises and they cannot or choose not to depend on their husbands, women are having to take greater responsibility for their finances.

A poll by Alliance & Leicester shows that more than a third of women think they hold the purse strings.

But the men see it differently - only one in five said their wife or girlfriend was in charge of household finances.

For 44% of couples, money matters are a shared responsibility.

When it comes to managing money, is it you or your partner that wears the financial trousers?
Historically, men have better numeracy skills than women and with the exception of savings ACCOUNTS , men currently own more financial products than women.

Research from finance watchdog the Financial Services Authority (FSA) shows that men and women hold different attitudes to financial products with women being more cautious, more careful and more traditional than men.
Women are also more likely to remain loyal and stay with a financial provider with whom they have an existing relationship.

They prefer to buy financial products face to face, feeling happy to take the recommendation of a financial adviser, whereas men are better at shopping around.

ut regardless of age and status (employment, ethnic origin, marital status) women are much less likely than men to read the financial pages of the newspapers. Overall more than one in three men regularly read the financial pages compared to only one in five women.
Secret savings
Interestingly, many women interviewed by the Fawcett Society - which campaigns for women - initially claimed that financial decision-making was shared with their partner.

However, when questioned further they frequently referred to instances where they had not been able to challenge a partner's spending decisions.

They also felt inhibited about spending money on themselves because they earned less than their partner.

'Bringing money into the household brings with it a sense of entitlement to decide how it is spent,' explains Geethika Jayatilaka of the Fawcett Society.

'Because men earn more than women they have greater control of how money is spent or shared, and more access to personal spending".

The Fawcett report found that a quarter of women with personal incomes of under £400 a month say that it is their partner who has the final say in financial decisions.

Women place a higher priority on saving than men but with little input into financial decisions resort to secret saving to redress the balance.

A typical comment from a secret saver was: 'It sounds terrible, but I'm not hiding it from him.

I just haven't told him it's there otherwise he would say let's go on holiday or something and then it would be gone'.
Home girls
Today's women want to manage their own money and MORTGAGE, even if they live with their other half, according to research from Standard Life Bank.

More than half of women with their own mortgage would keep it and their property for as long as possible even if they met a partner and decided to settle down.

With nearly one in five working women in the UK now having a mortgage on their own, home ownership is no longer men's domain.

Women are also more likely to get to grips with remortgage says The MarketPlace at Bradford & Bingley, and find the process easier than men.

'Our research shows that when it comes to remortgaging, women unequivocally wear the trousers,' says Elliot Nathan of the MarketPlace.

'They appear to have a much better understanding of the process itself and how long it takes.

Increasingly, women are making a greater number of financial decisions in the home and this research shows why.'
Girls also take the lead in turning a house into a home.

Latest findings from the Sainsbury's Bank Home Improvement Index, which tracks the amount people plan to spend on their homes over the next six months, reveals that around 6.28 million women have home improvements projects worth an estimated £29.29 billion in the pipeline, compared to just over five million men.
Stockmarket stunners
According to a study by website DigitalLook, women who play the stock market actually outperform men. Its analysis, based on a survey of 100,000 portfolios, shows that ordinary women investors, living all over the country and dealing in shares by the internet, telephone or investment clubs, are consistently doing better than the well-salaried professionals in the City. During the period of the study, the average woman's portfolio rose by 10%, compared to just a 7% rise for the overall FTSE index and a 6% increase for that of the average man. Women are also more demanding of the companies they invest their money in and more likely to opt for socially responsible or ethical companies when buying shares.