Women's Spending and Saving Practices Women earn less than men. Women live longer than men. Women participate less in retirement plans. Approximately half of equity owners are women.
Women behave differently from men.
Wives' investment decisions are influenced by their husbands' risk tolerance. Women invest more conservatively and trade stocks less often. Bajtelsmit and VanDerhei found that women more often chose to invest in a guaranteed interest fund and men more often chose to invest in employer stock. Yuh and Hanna found male headed households had the highest proportion of risky assets in their retirement portfolios and female headed households had the lowest. Widows were more heavily invested in houses and businesses than widowers.