Men and women have different spending priorities. When asked about their indulgences, men are much more likely to say electronics (54 percent versus 23 percent of women); women are more likely to say travel (43 percent versus 33 percent of men).
Men and women view money through different emotional filters. When asked which terms best describe their feelings about money, men are more likely to choose confidence (58 percent versus 44 percent of women). Women are more likely to pick anxiety (33 percent versus 18 percent of men), apprehension (26 percent versus 15 percent of men), and confusion (14 percent versus 8 percent of men).
Men and women are interested in different financial topics. Men are more into investing (83 percent versus 70 percent of women) and entrepreneurship (54 percent versus 36 percent of women). Women prefer savings (79 percent versus 69 percent of men), frugality (67 percent versus 53 percent of men), and shopping (20 percent versus 10 percent of men).
Men tend to be more aggressive with money. When applying for a job, for example, men are four times as likely as women to ask for more money than what is offered to them initially.8 Men are typically more comfortable taking on higher levels of risk. According to one survey, 66 percent of husbands labeled themselves the couple's bigger risk taker with money versus 31 percent of wives.
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More women (47 percent) than men (30 percent) feel they lack knowledge about investing, and fewer women say they enjoy investing (55 percent versus 69 percent of men).10 Given the previous findings about investing, it's noteworthy that men make more investment mistakes than women, and they make them more often. For example, men are more likely than women to allocate too much of their portfolio to one investment (32 percent versus 23 percent of women), buy a hot investment without doing any research (24 percent versus 13 percent of women), and trade securities too often (12 percent versus 5 percent of women). There's even evidence that women hedge fund managers outperform their male counterparts, with one ten-year study showing average annualized returns of 9 percent for hedge funds managed by women versus 5.8 percent for those managed by men.
Men and women differ in how they depict their current financial situation.
Lastly, men and women differ in their charitable giving, with women somewhat more likely than men to donate time and money.
Women tend to believe their situation to be worse than it actually is, sometimes overstating how much they have in debt. Men are just the opposite, tending to believe their situation to be better than it actually is, often overstating how much they earn.
