Allianz Life released their second study on women and money today.

While some of the Women Money and Power Phase II study findings are interesting, I can’t help but wonder: Would men have answered much differently?

For example women who were surveyed answered the following regarding financial information:

Information is overwhelming/too much/hard to sort through	44 percent
Information is complicated or hard to understand	36 percent
Materials are really boring and dry	32 percent
Don’t understand terminology/materials seem foreign	26 percent

I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that many guys feel the same way. It’s not a female thing to think that much of the terminology and materials that insurance companies utilize is hard for even finance majors to digest.

Here’s another example

Single women are most interested in becoming financially independent compared to other women. Well, of course they are, because without a partner they’re on their own. You’d think single guys would be more interested than the one married to an accountant as well.

If you are partnered, whether you’re male or female, work on developing a level of financial knowledge that you would be comfortable with in the event you become single. Things can change.

The study of course implies that finding a financial adviser is the way to develop this knowledge and financial security. Not that advisers can’t be helpful– for some they’re a life-saver. But before running to a professional, some baseline knowledge is important so you know if you’re being fed lines or sold garbage.

These days, with blogs and personal finance web sites everywhere, you can learn a thing or two without paying a penny.

To be sure, there has been research done in the past that says that women are more risk averse than men and that they tend to outperform guys in the stock market because guys are more likely to be overconfident.

What do you think? Do you think a study focusing on women and money has merit? Do you notice major gender differences when it comes to money? Or do you think that’s a bunch of baloney?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 10:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized, financial psychology, research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.