The proposed research will examine for several socio-demographic factors (e.g., age, income level, emotional factors. sex role, occupation, education, and marital status) for association with whether women engage in financial planning. To add context to the research, the review of literature presented here examines the existing literature on women and financial planning.
The presented review of literature is divided into three major categories: (1) Literature related to the importance of financial planning for women; (2) Literature related to factors associated with motivation for or reluctance to engage in financial planning including attitudinal and cognitive contributors, emotional contributors, and sociodemographic contributors; and (3) Literature related to programs that can be used to assist women with financial planning. Based on the reviewed literature, the chapter ends with a series of conclusions about women and factors that affect their decision to become actively involved in financial planning.
The Importance of Financial Planning For Women
According to Almond (1998), the importance of financial planning for women is highlighted by the sobering statistic that 80 to 90 percent of women will be solely responsible for all of their financial decisions at some point in their lives. Almond attributes two major reasons for these statistics: life expectancy and divorce.
Regarding life expectancy, Almond (1998) reports that insurance tables show that, on the average, women generally outlive men by five to seven years. However, he notes that these statistics really do not tell the full story which is that the average age at which women become widowed is 56 years. Given that the life expectancy of a woman who reaches age 55 is about age 82, if a widow she does not remarry, that equals 27 years of being solely responsible for her financial decisions.
When the foregoing facts are considered along side divorc...