In finance, women worry more and act less than men

ShareBuilder released today its second annual Women & Investing survey, finding that while women worry a lot more than men about their finances and retirement, they interestingly take a lot less actions to address their concerns. Call me crazy, but to me it also seems to become a vicious cycle of sorts, where the lack of action causes more concern, but that in turn can create fear to take action and so on ... I think you understand what I'm getting at.

In any event, the survey found some interesting (startling?) data pointing to a '"financial disconnect" in many women. Percentage-wise, 36% of women said they worry about retirement "all the time," compared to 29% of men. However, when it came to taking actions, such as having a financial game plan, 55% of men had one compared to 40% of women.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I too have been known to behave in a similar manner. Although no one can ever accuse me of worrying about anything, I certainly tend to take the back seat in our household and let hubby deal with most matters pertaining to our finances. I'm not even sure why, but when it comes to RRSP (similar to the 401-K in Canada), mortgage and the likes, I am happy to let someone else handle it (even if he isn't that thrilled about it -- hehe). Of course, when it comes to handling the investments, now that's a different story ... well, it is just a lot more fun, isn't it?