Five Reasons Why Women are Playing a Bigger Role in Financial Decision-Making
What is the woman's role in financial decisions? Should it be more or less? How and why women are making better financial decisions.
- Women are not afraid to take professional advice:
Numerous surveys have shown that women are far more likely to seek financial advice than men when it comes to making decisions that involve large expenditures.
Women not only discuss expenses such as purchasing a car, buying a home, taking out a mortgage or debt consolidation loan, etc, with their trusted friends and family, but are also more willing to consult a professional advisor or two before making a final decision.
It is often women who persuade their partners that it is a good idea to consult with a financial advisor because of their wider view of the many different types of financial products available, and with different terms and interest rates, than individuals not working in the field.
- Women make less income:
Unfair though it may be, women often don't rise so high in the career ladder and so still tend to earn far less than men.
For many women this means that in order to make ends meet they have to be more cautious about their spending and therefore tend to think hard before making financial decisions that can impact their future – and this is doubly true for women with families.
- Women are the financial decisions-makers in the household:
More women than men are still responsible for family grocery shopping and are more aware of the cost of the weekly shopping basket.
Women also tend to make more use of coupons, discounts and special offers and are more inclined to shop around and compare prices than men.
Paying attention to small but regular savings like this means that women are often more open to finding ways to cut their day-to-day living costs in order to, for example, save faster towards making a down-payment on a house, or for accelerating an extra mortgage payment.
- Women with children tend to be more cautious:
Having a family to care for tends to make women more aware of the need to set up a long term financial plan and work towards creating a better, more secure, future.
It is often when planning a family or shortly after the birth of a first-born that young couples decide to take the plunge and take out a mortgage to buy their first property.
In many cases women are the driving force behind this decision to approach a mortgage broker – and are often the brakes in not taking on a larger financial commitment than the couple can comfortably afford.
- Women are not afraid to ask questions:
This is particularly true when it comes to taking out loans or shopping around for a mortgage.
Women are not afraid to ask for explanations of the jargon and terms used to describe specific features of each mortgage or the fine print of loan application clauses.
This may sound a bit like the old stereotype that men don't like to stop to ask for driving directions whereas women don't think twice, but it is, in fact, a truism to say that women are more comfortable in acknowledging their ignorance than men when it comes to financial terminology and are therefore less embarrassed to ask for explanations.
All this being said, however, and even though more women are taking responsibility for financial decision making than ever before, a recent survey entitled Women and Financial Power revealed that 30% of Generation X women (born after the 1960s) feel that their finances are not really under their control.
In some cases this is because many Generation X women find themselves financially responsible for paying the high costs of further education for their own university-age children, as well as funding younger children still at home and elderly parents who may also require financial assistance.
If you find yourself in a situation like this and would like to find out more about taking out a second mortgage, debt consolidation or any other type of financing loan to help you to make ends meet, please contact Best Mortgage Montreal.
We have strong ties with a wide range of lenders and can negotiate excellent interest rates and terms, and minimize your closing costs.
Why not call us to talk to one of your professional brokers today.
Telephone 1 855 777 1711, 1 (514) 994-1030, or 1 (514) 819-9181
e-mail us at sales@bestmortgagemontreal.com
or come and talk to us at 1100 rue University, bureau 104, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 3A5.