Getting to be more savvy money managers

Women are taking charge of their money and know how it can work for them now more than ever before.

The Retirement Commission has found that both men and women know more about money management than they did four years ago, possibly because KiwiSaver and now the recession have forced people to focus on it.

The number of men with "high knowledge" of financial matters has increased from 39 per cent to 46 per cent from the time of the last survey in 2005.

The number of women with high knowledge, meanwhile, has leapt from 28 per cent to 40 per cent.

It has found that more people can give correct answers to both basic mathematical questions and harder ones about compound interest rates and investment.

In one of the simplest questions, people were shown a bank statement where Jane Doe's bank balance rose from $521.17 at the start of the month to $1321.17 at month's end, and were asked how long Jane would take to save $10,000.

The number of men who gave the right answer (12.5 months) rose from 67 per cent in the last survey to 77 per cent.

The number of women who got it right jumped from 55 per cent to 71 per cent.

One of the harder questions asked who would have more by the age of 60 - Sarah who saved $2500 a year from age 20, or Ben who saved $5000 a year from age 40.

The number who said they would both have the same by age 60 dropped from 60 per cent to 50 per cent, and those who correctly picked that Sarah would have more because of the compound interest earned over 40 years rose from 29 per cent to 37 per cent.