Men most often deal with household financial issues, and in making decisions usually draw on and most trust their own experience. Women, meanwhile, tend more than men to entrust financial matters to spouses or partners and to rely less on their own experience. These trends were revealed by a survey of Lithuanian residents' investment and saving habits commissioned by INVL Asset Management, one of the leading asset management companies in Lithuania.
Asked who makes the financial decisions in their households, 57.1 per cent of men indicated they do. Among women, 44.8 per cent said they make such decisions. Only 4.5 per cent of men said a spouse or partner handles these matters, while twice as many women – 10.5 per cent – prefer to leave financial decisions to the man of the house. Almost 35 per cent of respondents make financial decisions together with their partner.
"It's interesting that while the statistics shows there are more women than men with a higher education in Lithuania, in daily life women still tend to give their partners the right to resolve financial matters. On the other hand, we see that the higher a family member's level of education, the more often they manage home finances together with their spouse. The same trend also holds, by the way, for seeking the advice of a consultant at a financial institution," said Dr. Dalia Kolmatsui, the head of INVL Asset Management's sales network.
Although women less often resolve financial matters, they are more thorough financial planners: 57 per cent of them plan all household expenditures compared with 46 per cent of men. The latter more often than women plan only large purchases (36 per cent versus 32 per cent) or tend not to plan at all (about 15 per cent). Just half as many women do not plan expenditures at all – only 7.5 per cent.
Another trend the survey revealed is the influence of a household's income level on financial management. The higher a household's income is, the more frequently respondents handle financial matters together with their partner, while the lower income is, the more people tend to rely on their own experience.
By occupation, those who most often make financial decisions together with spouses and partners are farmers (54.2 per cent), homemakers (52 per cent) and people in management positions (46.9 per cent). Those who most often manage household finances on their own are unemployed persons (56.9 per cent), pensioners (55.9 per cent) and professionals and office workers (51.3 per cent).
Asked who they most trust for advice on financial matters, 41.7 per cent of all respondents and 44.6 per cent of men said they rely on their own experience. Among women, 39.3 per cent gave that response, while 25.5 per cent said they most trust the opinion of their spouse. Only 17.2 per cent of men trust their spouse the most on financial matters. Among all survey participants, 12.3 per cent mentioned consultants at financial institutions as reliable advisors on financial matters, and 10.6 per cent mentioned parents.
The representative survey of investment and saving habits was conducted on behalf of INVL Asset Management by the research company Spinter Tyrimai, which interviewed 1,011 Lithuanian residents aged 18 to 75 in February this year.
INVL Asset Management manages eight pension funds and five mutual funds as well as individual portfolios and private equity assets. It is part of Invalda INVL, one of the Baltic region's leading asset management groups. Companies in the group manage pension and mutual funds, alternative investments, individual portfolios, private equity and other financial instruments. They manage over 370 million euros of assets entrusted to them by more than 170,000 clients in Lithuania and Latvia as well as international investors.