Why It's Vital to Get Wise About Wealth
From birth to 18 a girl needs good parents. From 18 to 35, she needs good looks. From 35 to 55, good personality. From 55 on, she needs good cash. I'm saving my money. ~ Sophie Tucker
Bob and I presented The Great Divide - Women, Men & Money to a fabulous group of women last week. This informative and fun conversation between us and the attendees led us to feel even more passionate about informing women that they need to become financially:
- Conscious about finances and financial planning
- Confident in knowledge and decision making
- Communicative in their relationships
Despite the fact that most of the women attending were professional working women, we found the Mars and Venus divide still existed. Our audience poll revealed many women were not involved in the long-term financial management, decision making and investing, but were more involved in the day to day spending and budgeting.Generally speaking, women still use money as a means to nurture and create a lifestyle in the here and now, and men use money to provide and accumulate, investing in the future. For men, money is a symbol of power and respect. Studies from Merrill Lynch, Oppenheimer Funds and Charles Schwab found more women than men were uninformed about investing or about how a mutual fund works. Less women than men were responsible for buying and selling stocks, bonds and mutual funds.As a result, studies indicated women invest more conservatively and men take more risk. Another study at University of CA at Davis found women investors outperformed men since they were more likely to research investments and trade less often. Thus, women were more competent about investing than they believed.We will follow up on this vital topic all month long.If a woman doesn’t empower herself financially, whether single or in a relationship, she will be at a disadvantage now and in planning for the future.Share your thoughts and stories about women, men and money with us on our Facebook page.Here's to your relationship,Lori and Bob Hollander
Lori Hollander, LCSW-C, BCD, and Bob Hollander, LCSW-C, JD, are licensed counselors and co-founders of Relationships Work, an innovative therapy practice and online resource center that gives couples 360 degrees of support for extraordinary partnerships. Sign up for Radical Relationships, a monthly eZine from Relationships Work, and receive Why Take the Journey to Extraordinary? absolutely free.