WOMEN BACKWARDS IN COMING FORWARD WHEN IT COMES TO MONEY MATTERS

Money Chat campaign reveals over nine million women in the UK are uncomfortable discussing money;

and 16 million women are concerned about making ends-meet, compared to just 12 million men

Despite being known as the chattier sex, it seems that when it comes to talking money, women are more reluctant to open up than their male counterparts. New research released today from the Money Advice Service, has found that nearly two-fifths (39%) of women, which equates to 9.5 million people, are uncomfortable discussing money, compared to just a third of men (33% or 7.7m).

Worryingly, the figures, gathered as part of the Service’s Money Chat campaign, which aims to get the UK to open up more about money, also show that women are more concerned about their money, with nearly a third (31%) saying they feel stressed about it, compared to just over a fifth (22%) of men. And that nearly two-thirds of women (65% or 15.8m) are concerned about making ends-meet, compared to just over half of men (53% or 12.4m).

·       For some women, their reluctance to talk about money in daily life is related to confidence - nearly a third (30%) say they don’t feel confident talking about money, compared to just under a quarter (24%) of men.

·       A third (33%) of women say they find it stressful talking about money, compared to just under a quarter (24%) of men.

It’s not just in conversation that this lack of confidence may be putting women at a disadvantage. Men are also more willing to seek help when needed, with nearly half (45%) (10.5m) saying that they would tell their partner or family straight away if they were struggling with debt, compared to just under two-fifths (38%) (9.2m) of women. Outside of the home, nearly three-fifths (57%) of men, compared to just over half (52%) of women say that they are comfortable telling a professional or expert money adviser how much they earn for a living.

The survey also indicates:

·       Women are still quite traditional when thinking about earnings, with a third (33%) saying that they would prefer that their partner earn more than they do.

·       For nearly a third (30%) of women, planning to move in with someone is the time to start wondering how much a prospective partner earns, while under a fifth (19%) of men think about it then.

·       In fact, nearly a third (32%) of men say that they would never think about how much a prospective partner earns, compared to just under a fifth (18%) of women.

I suppose traditionally, money matters have been viewed as male territory and this may be one of the reasons why men still feel more confident discussing it and seeking help when needed. However, money is a topic we should all feel comfortable broaching, whether you’re a traditional type or not. This not only applies in times of difficulty, but also in our daily lives. Feeling comfortable discussing money makes it easier to assess our own financial situation, and see whether there are ways we could be making it work better for us."

To illustrate the results and highlight the differences between men and women across the UK, the Money Advice Service has created an interactive Money Chat Map at: www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/moneychat   

The Money Advice Service is an independent organisation, here to help everyone make the most of their money with free, practical advice. This autumn, it launched its Money Chat campaign to encourage everyone to open up more about money and break down the barriers that stop us seeking help. To get the conversation started, you can use its free online health check, which identifies a list of short and long-term money priorities in a personalised action plan. Try the health check now online at www.moneyadviceservice.org,uk.

Customers can also speak to a Money Adviser on the phone via 0300 500 5000, or arrange a face-to-face meeting in their local area (see below for further details).

Don't forget Sheconomics devotes a whole chapter to Sharing Financial Intimacies, helping you to get that money conversation started. You can also download our tip sheet about How To Talk To Your Partner About Money.

10 reasons why men need Sheconomics

Don't let our pinkness put you off - we have lots of bloke-friendly stuff going on. Here's why we think men need Sheconomics too:

·      1. Because research shows your investments would surge if you used your feminine side a tad more. No need to greet your latest dividend with a tearful acceptance speech, it's just about not being over-cocky, a risk-taker or one of the boys. More diverse portfolios, caution and not over-reacting to a volatile market explain why female investors outperform men consistently.

·     2  Because you could learn how to dress for success. Drop that favourite well-worn brown suit off at Oxfam and let someone with a tape measure get intimate with your inside leg. Seriously, people do judge you by what you wear. A lot. Men in bespoke suits are judged to be more successful, confident, trustworthy, flexible and higher earners than their off-the-peg counterparts.

·     3. Because you could suss out how to have cool, non-confrontational conversations about money. And you could have a better, happier home-life if you did so. There are tricks and strategies we can all learn that will make money-chat nicer. No issues. No arguments. Hugs optional.

·    4.  Because you could be a better Dad.  Without realising it parents play more roughly with boy babies than with girls. They let boys explore more than girls and use more emotion words with their daughters than with their sons. Swat up on the significant but subtle ways you can give your daughter the kind of start in life you are unconsciously giving your son. Get wind of some good Sheconomics strategies for raising kids.

·      5. Because you’ll do the right thing by her in the event of the unmentionable happening.

     When multi-million selling author Stieg Larsson died suddenly at 50 his estranged family, and not his life-long partner Eva, inherited his fortune. Eva's even having to fight a legal battle to stay in their apartment. No-one wants to think about death but not thinking of those you'll leave behind is dumb.

  

·     6. Because you overwork your logical left brain and neglect the poor old right. Ever thought about which side of your brain is managing your money? Intuition can be a useful tool, but seems to be the reverse of logic. The field of behavioural economics is obsessed by these concepts because humans are rarely rational decision-making machines. They fall victim to flawed logic, emotional reactions and cognitive biases.

·      7. Because you could realise some of the hidden forces behind financial success, and why it helps to be tall, left-handed and tidy. 

      Yes, we said tidy. No, we’re not nagging. It's just that taller people earn more than shorter people and left-handed people earn more than right-handed people. Things that are hard to change. But people with tidier homes do earn more than people with messy homes. Reason to not drop those socks on the floor?

·      8. Because if you’ve ever suffered death-by-dinner-party you’ll see how company boards make the same mistakes as very dull hosts. Mixing up the guests brings livelier conversations and new perspectives. About 10 years ago Norwegian boards were mostly made up of men with very similar views and backgrounds who went hunting and fishing together. This meant there was a huge risk of group-think in the boards’ decision-making processes, and a real lack of diverse perspectives.

     Adding just 3 women to boards has been shown to increase the company's bottom line by 40% and boost the country's economy.

·      9 . Because emotional intelligence is just as important as IQ. You’ve always known that IQ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be - there are better ways of selecting the right bunch of people to work with.

     Studies show the most effective groups listen to each other, share constructive criticism, have open minds, are not autocratic and use conversational turn-taking to good effect.

·      10. Because we can all learn something from the bagel man. You can tell how much people like their bosses and their work from how much dosh they drop in the honesty box. It could be a good metric for getting to know the health of your company and the happiness of your employees. Honest. 

 Final word from a lovely friend of Sheconomics, Alan Newman of the Finance IT Network:

• "There's probably some merit to the accusation that the financial services sector is 'male, pale and stale'. The insights from this book - co-authored by a Professor of Psychology and a Financial Coach (who left IFA boredom behind her) - should be compulsory reading for us blokes."                        

I don't wanna talk about it...

“It’s the one topic we can’t bring ourselves to talk about” I heard Jenny say on Woman’s Hour last week. She was talking about incontinence. I won’t say more here – this isn’t weeconomics – but it reminded me of that other big taboo: money.

Did someone mention the M word?

Women aren’t as comfortable talking about their earnings as men, according to new research from the Money Advice Service. But neither sex is too fond of shouting their salary from the roof-tops. Just 5% of women and 10% of men would tell a stranger how much they earn.

We have our hush-hush places too – one in four of us feel it’s wrong to discuss money at the hairdressers (where we'll share every other intimate detail of our personal life), others wouldn’t bring it up at a party or down the pub with friends (28%).

As I've said in earlier posts, it really is time we tackled this taboo. Why? Because money secrets wreck marriages and make people downright miserable. And money problems and mental health problems seem to go hand-in-hand.  According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists:
 - One in two people with debts has a mental health problem.
 - One in four adults with mental health problems is in debt.
And being in a financial mess can make you feel:

• As if everything is out of control and there's nothing you, or anyone else, can do about it.
• Hopeless, especially if you have debts that are growing.
• Embarrassed to talk to anyone about your financial situation.
• Guilty - that the problem is your fault, even if it's due to mental or physical health problems.
• Anxious and depressed.

Talking about money problems is the first step to sorting them out. Our friends over at the Money Advice Service are running a Money Chat campaign. They want to break down the big taboo and get people talking more about money*.

They even have this fab Money chat map so you can view the regional figures

So, if you have been keeping mum about money, maybe we can help you open up?

Check out the downloads section of our Sheconomics website for useful tip sheets.

Tip sheet no 5 is about How to Talk to Your Partner about Money and Tip sheet no 6 is How to own up to a Money Problem.

Plus in Sheconomics we devote a whole chapter (Share Financial Intimacies) to tackling the great taboo. The money taboo that is. Sorry - we can’t help with incontinence, although you may be able to catch the programme again.

*The Money Advice Service has Money Advisers available on the phone or face-to-face. To help get the conversation started, there’s a personal action plan produced by their free online health check, which identifies a list of short and long-term money priorities. Available online at moneyadviceservice.org.uk and on the phone via 0300 500 5000

Have you got a money mate?

According to new research only a fifth of us have someone we can talk to about money.

There are times when we all find it reassuring to talk over our concerns in life - from careers to relationships, but when it comes to money matters, it seems many of us don’t have anyone to confide in. Results from a new survey by the Money Advice Service reveal that 76% of us admit to feeling generally happy about life when we feel good about our money, yet only 19% of us say we have someone who we trust to confide in about our money situation.

It's time we talked about money folks!

Today, the independent Money Advice Service launches the Money Chat campaign and 

we're right behind their aim to get the UK talking about money. 

The campaign will run from now until the autumn, offering free tips and tools to help people get their conversations started – online, over the phone, or face-to-face.

To launch the campaign the Money Advice Service surveyed over 2,000 adults to find out how the UK population feels about money matters.

Their results, published today, highlight that while money can’t necessarily buy us happiness feeling on top of it really can.  Having financial control gives us a positive boost that helps us cope better with other aspects of life, for example:

· 44% of us feel more in control of our lives overall when we feel in control of our money 

· 33% of us feel more confident when our finances are in order

· 37% of us can get on better with other aspects of our lives when our finances are in order

It's good to know you're not alone...

Being able to talk about money is key to getting on top of financial matters. 

In Sheconomics we have a whole chapter called Share Financial Intimacies in which we show you how to understand each other's money mindset, start a money conversation and even achieve joint account harmony (yes, it can be done!).

You can even download a tip sheet on How to talk to your partner about money.

The Money Advice Service’s free unbiased money advice is available nationwide - online at moneyadviceservice.org.uk and on the phone via 0300 500 5000. 

So - what are you waiting for? Go and have a money chat with someone today.

Tall, attractive, left-handed man with tidy home wanted.

Cor, what a nerve! The indignation in the voices of the people answering the radio interviewer’s question was palpable:

“I’d prefer not to say”

“That’s confidential!”

“It’s not appropriate to discuss that”

“I’m not prepared to tell you”

............................

     

Is money the great taboo?

What topic had Daniel Finkelstein probed them about for his programme Can Pay Will Pay? 


That brazen broadcaster had the nerve, the sheer bare-faced gall to accost complete strangers - and ask them how much they earned. 


The responses that could be broadcast consisted of polite but firm refusals.
Why is money such a great taboo? 

Actually, as DF pointed out, it’s the great British taboo. A Polish girl was quite happy to reveal all and was shocked by the anal Brits’ secrecy over the size of their pay packets.

Here are 10 fascinating facts about people’s earnings that you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask:

1.       The UK earnings average is just under £26,000 p.a.
2.       Most people earn between 15k-35k
3.       If you earn over £51,000 you’re in the top 10%
4.       Women make up the majority of the paid less group
5.       Ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities are overrepresented in the low earners group
6.       Taller people earn more  than shorter people (an extra inch of height results in an extra 2.5% of earnings)!
7.       Ugly people earn 10-20% less than the average
8.       People with tidy homes earn more than messier people
9.       Lesbians earn more than heterosexual women while gay men earn less than heterosexual men
10.          Left handed people earn more than right handed

So if you’re a short, ugly, right-handed, messy, heterosexual woman from an ethnic minority group your pay-prospects don’t look too good. But one consolation is you’ll probably hush up your low pay. Unless you’re Polish of course….

One research finding that might console the low paid is that you’ll only be unhappy about your low pay if you discover that someone is earning more. Relative earnings, rather than absolute earnings, are what make people happy, apparently. Perhaps that explains the pay-talk taboo. If someone else is earning more, we'd just rather not know thank you very much.