Do you take responsibility for your finances?

As the founder of Wealth for Women, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that most of my clients are female. Typically, they are going through, or have just been through, divorce.

In almost every case, the husband has had full responsibility for looking after the joint finances during the marriage and the female has taken responsibility for looking after the children and home. Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this – far from it. In any relationship, it makes sense to split the responsibilities.

However, for this arrangement to work best all round, it is essential that neither the husband nor wife does not end up oblivious to the decisions the other is making on behalf of the family.

It has always intrigued me as to why the responsibilities for the family finances so often falls to the man. According to various studies, there is a persisting gender gap in achievement at mathematics in schools.
My theory is the way in which mathematics is taught may not appeal to the typical female brain as much as to males. This is the only reason I can think of as to why so many smart, savvy, well educated, women often have a total mental block about maths and finance. It is almost as though the shutters come down.

Does that sound familiar?

So many of these women decide to let their partner take control of managing the family finances. Moreover, it seems often some women are so loathe to leave their comfort zone and deal with the finances, that they are happier to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the issues.

Now, of course, if my theory is correct, then I can only assume that I don’t have a typical female brain. I love maths. I love the logic of it.

It concerns me immensely that so many women are deciding not to engage with finance at all. All of us, whether married, single or divorced, need to take financial responsibility. Let’s face it, we’re the ones who will benefit the most from looking after our finances.

What are your thoughts?

I’m keen to know what everyone else thinks about this.

• Are you fully financially savvy and do you think it’s irresponsible not to plan for the future?
• Do you deal with all the financial issues in your relationship?
• Or, are you a female who doesn’t feel in control of their finances?
• If so, why is it that you’re not engaged with managing your finances and planning for the future?
• Do you worry about your financial future or are you so disengaged you choose to stick your head in the sand?

Whilst this isn’t a proper scientific study, your thoughts and comments would really help me to see whether my theory about maths teaching not appealing to female brains holds truth.

Do let me know.