Battle of sexes

Are There Sex Differences in Money Usage or Handling Money?

Are men and women very different in how they think about and use money?

A Study of Psychological Gender Differences shows that one's sex has little or no bearing on personality, cognition and leadership.

But if you peruse financial media, you’ll hear that men are better with money!

Is that True?

What I fee is women typically have different approaches to investing than men, the female investors tend to be more conservative and risk averse. They often seek out advice, prefer a more collaborative relationship and are more open to assistance than men.

Psychologically men are more prone to overconfidence than women, in male-dominated realms such as finance. Men were more likely to expect their portfolios to outperform the market.

Men are more likely to trade than women. There are even some cultures where women still have had much less opportunity than men to handle significant sums of money.

In an interview, Christine Schmid of Credit Suisse explains that the sub-discipline of gender finance deals with the social differences between men and women.

Anja Peter, of Bank Coop in Switzerland concurs that "naturally, there are differences between men and women, biologically and socially, and this is reflected in investment behavior." For instance, women are generally more interested in such issues as ecology, ethics and microcredits. However, when it comes to the crunch, this interest does not always impact on the actual investment decision.

The investment industry is still a male-dominated game. The vast majority of money managers, analysts and bankers are male. While more women than ever before are achieving success in the business world, some of the world's biggest companies have female CEOs Chanda Kochhar ICICI Bank, Shikha Sharma Axis Bank, Indra Nooyi PepsiCo and more.

There have been a few publications that suggest women are safer investors. In 2011, a study by Barclay's Capital suggested that women's portfolios perform better than men's do.

Also women are the primary decision makers in the household handling the day-to-day budgeting and spending. When it comes to men, they seem to be able to take a longer term perspective on money — possibly because they aren’t worried about the household when a female partner is looking after the details.

When I tried to get statistics of the genders related to debt I found men are more likely to carry more debt compared to women. Whereas they seem to be more optimistic when it comes to their ability to pay the debt down.

Kerry Hannon says men are more tend to spend their retirement funds during handling money crises than women. Women when handling money crises rather than touching the retirement funds prefer downsizing homes or expenses.

Women are more anxious about money than are males, and tend to be more interested in the quality of the products they are purchasing than their male counterparts.

Hence when we talk about money spending it seems that men and women spend roughly the same amount of money, with women spending more often than men, and men spending more on single purchases than women.

Men tend to view money as a game. Men may see money as a way to keep score, and may also be perceive it as a measure of status and power.

Whereas women, may be less interested in simply accumulating money for its own sake but more because of what it can do for them. As nurturers and caregivers, women want to know how wealth can serve them and the needs of those they love. Women may also prioritize passing along values with their money.

Though more women are influenced by sales and feel compelled to spend money at them than men are, the statistics are undeniable: women are making more than they have ever made before and are encouraging men to save more than ever before.

For the most part, men and women are in the same boat when it comes to managing debt and spending responsibly, but there are some Financial Lessons Men and Women Should Learn from Each Other.

To sum up here are few pointers

Women are socialized to save money “just in case” something happens; men are encouraged to learn how to invest and make money grow.

Women use money to take care of others; men use money to keep score.

Women tend to buy what they want; men buy what they need.

Women use money to create a lifestyle right now; men use money to prepare for the future.

Women are cautious about investing money; men take investment risks.

Women spend money on relationships and people they care about; men spend money on themselves.

Women ask for what they think they deserve; men ask for what they want.

Women view money in terms of relationships; men view money objectively.

Women expect others to know more than they do; men learn how to be savvy investors.

Women want to be fair during financial hardship; men advocate for themselves when they have financial problems.

What do you think who is better?