Men and women have different attitudes toward saving money and different opinions about themselves as money managers, according to Northwestern Mutual's 2013 Planning and Progress Study.
According to the study, one in four Americans say they would like to be more cautious with their money and have a lot of catching up to do to be where they want financially, but men and women have somewhat different views on how to do that.
More men than women, 37 percent vs. 31 percent, say they are disciplined financial planners. The majority of both, 66 percent of men and 59 percent of women, feel their financial planning needs improvement.
When it comes to spending less to get finances under control, more women (44 percent) than men (34 percent) said they planned to do that in the next 12 months.
About 25 percent of male respondents said their retirement savings have dropped in the last three years from investment losses vs. only 9 percent of female respondents.
Ten percent of women and 16 percent of men say they are comfortable with the risks associated with growth strategies when investing for the future.
The top reason for falling behind financially was cited as unexpected expenses by 60 percent of women and 43 percent of men. The second reason cited by women was debt (54 percent of women and 40 percent of men.) For men, the second top reason for falling behind was a lack of effective planning for the long term (42 percent of men versus 32 percent of women).
When people 55 years old and older were asked about the best financial decisions they have made, men and women agree that saving money in one form or another is key. However, men are more likely to say they invested heavily in their 401(k)s (35 percent versus 21 percent); and that they invested the majority of their savings in the stock market (17 percent versus 8 percent).
Despite men’s greater comfort with risk and higher probability of having suffered market losses, they still feel more financially secure than women; 47 percent of men feel financially secure compared to 40 percent of women.
“While the differences in perspectives between men and women are interesting, ultimately our study found that too many people – regardless of gender – ended up in the exact same place: trying to play catch-up,” says Greg Oberland, Northwestern Mutual executive vice president.