Sixty per cent of women who have personal responsibility for managing households investments say that achieving financial independence was the reason they became interested in investing, a significant increase over the 50% who cited this reason last year. Those findings are from a recent survey conducted on behalf of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.

More than three-quarters (77%) say that “saving for retirement” was the issue that first got them interested in investing, unchanged from last year (76%).

When asked, “What proportion of your current annual household income do you think you will need each year once you have retired in order to have a comfortable retirement?”, the average response was 55%. However, more than a third of the women surveyed (36%) admitted to not knowing.

“More Canadian women are realizing that having their own financial nest-egg is essential to achieve independence, a comfortable retirement and peace of mind,” said Patricia Lovett-Reid, Senior Vice President, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc., in a news release. “This is good news when you consider trends such as high divorce rates, the fact that one in five families with children is headed by a single woman and that single parent families now have more children than married couples.”

“What is less encouraging is that more than a third of women don’t know what annual income they will need in retirement,” continues Lovett-Reid. “That clearly indicates they haven’t tried to calculate their retirement needs or haven’t sought professional advice. Even with the best intentions, if you don’t have a goal, you can’t have a plan.”

Those who manage a smaller investment portfolio (under $50,000) are far less likely to have a financial plan or use the services of a financial professional. However, the incidence of using a financial professional is far from universal among those with larger portfolios. In fact, just under two-thirds (63%) of those who manage a larger portfolio report working with a financial planner.

“The sooner women develop a financial plan and put it in play, the closer they will be to becoming financially independent,” says Lovett-Reid. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking you need to accumulate significant savings before you can benefit from investment advice. The best time to begin is right now.”

The 2006 poll also finds that more than three in four women (77%) with household investment responsibility believe that they invest differently than men, a slightly higher proportion compared to last year’s finding (72%). Women think they have a different risk tolerance (29%), are more cautious and plan differently (10% each), have a different investment horizon (9%) and are more emotional (8%) than men. In this last category, the number of women who feel they are “more emotional” investors than men jumped from 2% to 8%.

More than four in ten (42%) poll respondents indicate that financial advisors are their main source of financial information, followed by the Internet (11%), media (10%), and family or friends (10%). Notably, there has been a significant drop in the past year in the proportion of women who identify the media as their main source of financial information, down from 19% in 2005.

TNS Canadian Facts conducted the telephone survey on behalf of TD Waterhouse between July 24 and August 8, 2006. 900 women between the ages of 25 to 69 years were contacted.

TD Waterhouse previously conducted the Female Investor Poll in 2001, 2002 and 2005.