Inflation Is Women's Biggest Financial Worry: Survey

The online study was conducted from June 14 to July 11 among some 1,100 women who are members of the HerMoney community. They range in age from 18 to 75, and most are college-educated and work full time. Nearly two-thirds are married or partnered.  

Degrees of Risk Aversion

The survey found that only 12% of women consider themselves risk averse when it comes to investments. Sixty-two percent said they are bigger risk-takers than their parents, while 35% are more so than their partners.

“Women embrace risk in the market but should also realize ways of protecting their future selves,” Jean Statler, Alliance for Lifetime Income chief executive, said in the statement. “Four in 10 women agree with the statement that protecting their portfolios is more important to them than high returns.” 

Forty-three percent of respondents said they take more risks with their money than with their life or work: careers, 32%; personal lives, 30%; and investments, 12%.

Asked the most common regrets their “future selves” might have in 20 years, respondents’ answers were personal rather than financial, with only not saving more money for later cracking the top five regrets, cited by 45%.

Fifty-seven percent said they would regret not traveling to places outside their comfort zone, 43% not making new friends, 41% not working less to spend more time with family and 37% not saying what they really think.