When I started out my career in financial services I was skeptical about gender difference claims when it came to money. But over the years I’ve come to believe that while the capacity for financial understanding isn’t different, the relationship women and men have with money is. For one thing, women generally admit to having a lot more fear about money and studies have borne this out.

A few years ago, the US company Allianz Insurance found that over 90% of women lacked confidence when it came to money and 50% of women, even those earning over $100,000, worried about becoming a bag lady one day.

Some of the challenges women face are well-founded – women often still earn less that men. (On average, Canadian women earn about 66% of their male counterparts). And, although the gap is narrowing, females can still expect to live almost five years longer than males which add to the severity and complexity of their concerns, especially in their later years.

A recent study by Sun Life Canadian Unretirement Index highlights some other differences:

• Twice as many men than women say they want to work past 65
• Women are more likely to be concerned with long-term care, low interest rates and death of a spouse
• Women working past age 65 are more apt to worry about covering their basic living expenses
• More women believe their company pension plan will not be enough to live on
• Fewer women than men are confident they will be able to maintain the lifestyle they want
• Women tend to be less confident about the overall economy – and their personal finances

Each of these points has wide-ranging implications not only from a financial point of view but also in terms of emotional well being. Somehow individuals, financial advisors and we as a society need to address the stress and anxiety that often come with retirement. This is especially true as the Canadian population continues to age and there is less financial certainty in respect to the overall economy, government and company pension plans, and our own investment savings.

The Sun Life study also points to a possible remedy to retirement concerns. Both women and men were “significantly more confident about their retirement if they had worked with a financial advisor.” Coming from a financial services company, this last statement might seem a little self-serving, but there is no question that being more educated, knowing where you stand with your money and doing some advance planning can make a vast difference in your level of financial confidence when it comes to retirement. – Karin Mizgala

Karin Mizgala is a Vancouver-based fee-only financial planner with an MBA and a degree in psychology. She’s the President of LifeDesign Financial and co-founder of the Women’s Financial Learning Centre.