Are men better at managing money than women?

[Will]

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Is there something about men that makes us better money managers? Why are women associated with so many negative financial stereotypes?

• Gold diggers
• Daddy's little girl
• Impulse shoppers
• Penny-pinching housewives

Why do we have these stereotypes? Are they a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy?

In September, Nina Smith of Queercents noticed that women financial bloggers are not getting their due:

[out of] a list of the Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs based on monthly traffic... only two made the Top 25 blogs that are written exclusively by women. (link)

Does this discrepancy highlight some kind of inherent bias the blogosphere has against financial advice provided by women? Or are there truly differences between how men and women manage money?

[soupkitchen96]

Men get a lot of stereotypes too.

• People assume women are more "mature" than men
• Women are responsible "nest eggers" while men like to squander money
• Men are crazy risk takers
• Men like to buy stupid things

Women like to use the last one against me all the time. For some reason my $150 Buffy DVD set is a waste of money but their $300 pair of shoes are a-ok.

[Will]

Well, technically shoes are useful.

BTW, I also wanted to bring these facts to your attention:

• 7 out of 10 Americans thought their mothers were good financial role models (link).
• Mutual funds run by women are just as successful as mutual funds run by men. (link).
  
• Some studies show that women are even better at running hedge funds than men are (link).

[arcadian]

in my family my mom was always the careful planner. my dad basically hands over his paycheck to my mom and she takes care of everything, including paying the bills, making investments, giving us allowances. while on the surface it seems my dad makes all the big decisions, in the background all the daily financial moves are made by mom.

[imagine girl]

I can't speak for other couples, but I am generally the "big picture" person in my relationship. My boyfriend would spend his entire meager earnings on comic books and dvds if I didn't intervene.

$300 pair of shoes are a-ok

I only buy expensive shoes for work purposes and even then they rarely cost $300!

[lazy23]

I rarely think about whether the author of a blog is a man or a woman. It is the quality of the advice that counts.

[Djmem]

I do not think that men or women are inherently better at manageing money. I think it entirely depends on the person. I know women and men who are great with handeling money and woman and men who are terrible at it. I think it is limiting to catigorize half of the population as being a certian way. In my family I am the financial savy one, and my husband is not.

[kav122]

I don't think that either men or women are better at money. I keep track of all of the finances in my marriage. My husband signs his check, and hands it over. I give him money to "go on." However, I also give myself the same money to go on, and if either of us needs to buy something not covered by that money, we consult one another. I also keep all of the bills listed on a spread sheet along with passwords and links to get to the websites to pay the bills just in case he ever needs to do it. Honestly, I don't think that he has ever paid a single bill since we have been together, but I know he trusts that I do it. I do try to make things available so he knows where our money goes and if he wants to find out he can. We are very frugal so the majority of our money goes to paying off the house anyway, so we don't have that much "mad money."

[rodaniel]

The notion that men are more business and finance-savvy is, well, an old wives' tale.

My mom handled almost all of the bill-paying and paperwork when we were kids. Likewise, my wife handles the bulk of our finances now. I'm involved and do contribute to the workload but Dede's just more well-organized and methodical about paperwork. Oddly enough, however, my wife got all of her money and mone-management skills from her dad - the man knew 18 ways to stretch a buck!

Generally though, it seems like women are more detail-oriented and organized. And of those who do handle the bulk of their family's finances, I think women are more financially conservative too.

However, I'm more OCD about purchases, researching and reading reviews endelessly before plopping down our bucks on nearly anything.

Rob

[mydebtquest]

Originally Posted by kav122

I don't think that either men or women are better at money. I keep track of all of the finances in my marriage. My husband signs his check, and hands it over. I give him money to "go on." However, I also give myself the same money to go on, and if either of us needs to buy something not covered by that money, we consult one another. I also keep all of the bills listed on a spread sheet along with passwords and links to get to the websites to pay the bills just in case he ever needs to do it. Honestly, I don't think that he has ever paid a single bill since we have been together, but I know he trusts that I do it. I do try to make things available so he knows where our money goes and if he wants to find out he can. We are very frugal so the majority of our money goes to paying off the house anyway, so we don't have that much "mad money."

I agree.

My wife and I are exactly the opposite - I receive all of the earnings, pay the bills, set aside some savings, and let her know how much is left until the next paycheck. I don't think financial prowess has anything to do with gender, but a composite of upbringing and strengths.

Upbringing starts in childhood, and the lessons our parents instill on us about financial matters, savings, debt, etc., and even more general lessons about responsibility, values, morales, and such. It continues in early adulthood, our first ventures into financial independence, and the lessons we learn.

I learned a very hard lesson about the dangers of credit cards, which still impacts our finances years later. She didn't get started with a credit card until just a couple of years ago, so she hasn't learned of the dangers firsthand. I moved into my own apartment in my second year of college, paying all of the bills, dealing with the utilities, and searching for ways to trim expenses. She lived with roommates until just a few months before we moved together, so she never dealt with the challenges of managing a household.

We all have strengths and weaknesses - some people love math and numbers, and others do not. In our case, I am the math person in the relationship. I am comfortable with numbers, I can balance our accounts, I can look at different accounts and get a good sense of the big picture without struggling with the concepts of compound interest. More importantly, I enjoy math, so working through our finances is not a chore for me. For my wife, she can do the math, she could balance the accounts if she wanted to, but why, if I can do it faster and enjoy it at the same time? Even better for me, there are other chores that she enjoys doing that I can't stand, so its a fair trade

I know of other couples that are the exact opposite in terms of their strengths and upbringing. I know of some couples that are equally matched, but one person has more time than the other to deal with the finances. I don't think gender factors in at all, except in relationships that are based on stereotype and gender stereotypes - but in my own deluded world, I like to think that we've moved past barefoot and pregnant women in the kitchen and into suited and powerful women in the boardroom.