Experts say that many of the characteristics that make women uniquely feminine are the very same behaviour that prevent them from making wise financial decisions.
“Being bad with money is not an insult to women, nor is it something to be ashamed of. It is because of their feminine nature that they keep making the same financial mistakes over and over again,” says Patrick Wameyo, a financial advisor, founder and executive director of Financial Academy and Technologies Limited.
As nurturers and caregivers, women look at how money can serve them and the needs of those they love, and not really in accumulating wealth that would benefit her and her loved ones in the long run.
“Women have a high sense of self appreciation and unlike men, they tend to spend more on a lifestyle rather than investing,” he notes. “While a woman would be more satisfied with owning a home, decorating its interiors, changing furniture or curtains, colour themes, a man will be thinking about owning more homes,” he adds.
Wameyo says women have an almost natural delay in accumulation of wealth. They tend to start investing later in life when it is too late and are about to retire. “When we put our finances last, we miss out on opportunities to grow our wealth and secure our financial future,” Wameyo offers.
However, he reiterates that this does not mean women do not see investing as important. Men and women have pretty the same values, it is just that a man’s number one priority could be a woman’s number three and vice-versa.
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Cate Kerubo, a sociologist, says sometimes how a woman spends money is determined by what the society expects of her. “More often, it is the wife who takes care of the household monthly bills and the husband takes care of the investment decisions and management of a family’s wealth,” she notes.
“There is usually an imaginary line drawn between these designated duties, but given the complexity of money matters, I think time has come for women to cross that line and be active partners in financial planning and investment management decisions.”
“We all know of stories where women blindly trusted their investment portfolios to their partner for decades only to be rudely shocked when their wealth was a lot less or non-existent,” she notes.
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