Interesting stats on women and money

Cape Town - About 51% of working metropolitan moms consider themselves to be single moms, according to the latest Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor.

This research also shows that 75% of working metropolitan women contribute to a funeral policy, compared to 70% for men.

The monitor found 53% of black women contribute to at least one stokvel per month, compared to 40% for men.

The women's contributions to the stokvel is on average R594 per month compared with R766 for men.

Regarding credit cards, 34% of women said they have these, compared to 32% for men and 72% of the women have store cards compared to 60% for men.

Women (56%) turn out to be more likely to just pay the minimum amount each month on their credit cards compared to 45% for men.

This could be influenced by the high percentage of single moms and their limited financial means.

Both women and men have the same level of satisfaction with their current financial situation, namely 6.5 out of 10.

Regarding their financial situation, 26% of women feel that their financial situation is worse than it was a year ago compared to 23% for men.

The top three savings objectives for women are emergency expenses (43%), retirement or old age (38%) and funeral expenses (35%).

About 53% of women agree that “saving for education is more important than saving for retirement”, compared to 47% for men.

When it comes to taking risks in their lives, 41% of women say that they like to take risks in their life, compared to 52% for men.

It turns out 41% of women believe their children should take care of them when they are old, compared to 38% for men.

Women indicated that their main sources of financial information are bank Consultant (34%), word of mouth (21%) and a financial adviser (16%).

About 69% of women who have not consulted with a financial adviser believe that they don’t have enough money to do so.

Should they get a sudden windfall of a monthly salary, women indicated they would spend it, or part of it on paying off debt (35%) or invest it in shorter term savings and investments (26%).

The women who indicated they would simply spend it, said they would spend it on food and groceries (38%), clothes (34%), household durables (27%) and school uniforms or school fees (25%).

Lastly, 81% of the women said they want to learn more about how to save.

- Fin24