Northwestern Mutual: Women Cautiously Take Control of Finances

Currently, women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men, they are more likely to graduate from college and hold a graduate degree and, in many cases, they are the principal decision-makers of household finances.

Yet, and perhaps because of the strides women have made, there is a palpable sense that their financial planning needs improvement, according to a recent Northwestern Mutual study.

Possibly because of their evolving role as financial guardians women are more likely than men to see room for improvement; the study found that women are more likely than men to feel that their financial planning needs to progress (63% vs 54%). Women are also more likely than men to consider themselves “informal” planners (41% vs 35%) and notably, women feel less financially prepared to reach age 75 (48% vs 65%), 85 (37% vs 55%) and 95 (30% vs 43%).