As women juggle household responsibilities, they may neglect their financial health, a CIBC poll suggests.
Many household tasks — from child care to grocery buying — fall to more women than men, the poll found, and that discrepancy extends to personal finances. For example, more women than men were responsible for budgeting (59% versus 52%) and paying bills (61% versus 58%).
Despite those financial responsibilities, women lagged men when it came to investing and planning.
More than one-third (38%) of women had no investment portfolio, and 25% didn’t know how much they needed to save. For men, those figures were 29% and 17%, respectively.
“It’s important to acknowledge the workload women are carrying today, but few have clear plans of their own for savings and retirement, and that could create long-term gaps in their financial well-being,” said Carissa Lucreziano, vice-president, CIBC Financial and Investment Advice, in a release.
Still, the poll suggested a significant portion of women are involved in investing and planning decisions, if less so than men.
More than half of women polled (56%) said they acted as the main point of contact for their household’s financial advisor (compared to 62% of men), and half chose the advisor (versus 61% of men).
Further, nearly half of the women polled (48%) decided how the household should invest and planned long-term savings goals (49%). For men, those figures were 57% and 54%, respectively.
About the CIBC poll: From Jan. 27 to Jan. 29, 2021, Maru/Blue conducted an online survey of 3,024 randomly selected Canadian adults who were Maru Voice Canada panellists. Results were weighted by education, age, gender and region (and in Quebec, language) to match the population, according to census data.
The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys can’t be assigned a margin of error because they don’t randomly sample the population.