Money worries keeping more women awake than men

41 per cent of women said financial woes stopped them from sleeping compared to 35 per cent of men. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwi women are more likely to be kept awake at night by money worries than men, and yet fewer women are willing to learn about how to get their finances sorted.

Research by credit-rating agency Credit Simple found 41 per cent of women said financial woes stopped them from sleeping, compared to 35 per cent of men.

But while nearly three of out of four men (74 per cent) were keen to learn more about how to whip their finances into shape, that shrunk to 67 per cent for women.

Hazel Phillips, a spokeswoman for Credit Simple, said women had traditionally been good at short-term financial planning like managing the household budget and paying bills on time.

"However, they've not been so great at planning for the long term."

Recent figures from Westpac show Kiwi women are already falling behind when it comes to their retirement savings.

Its found Kiwi women were contributing less to KiwiSaver than men, had lower average balances and were less likely to have other investments they can use to pay for their retirement.

Nearly a third of women in the survey had less than $5000 in their KiwiSaver accounts (compared with 19 per cent of men) while only 4 per cent had more than $50,000 (compared with 13 per cent of men).

Phillips said when it came to the longer term, women needed to realise that small steps, taken early, could make a huge difference over time.

"Things like sacrificing one takeaway coffee a day and putting the money in a high-interest account will all add up."

The research also found women were more likely to learn about personal finances and budgeting from their mum (28 per cent) than their dad (18 per cent), while men learned almost the same amount from female relatives (23 per cent) as male relatives (24 per cent).

While men were also more likely to teach themselves about personal finance (47 per cent) than women (40 per cent).

The research surveyed 1000 people during February.