Women worry more than men in regards to saving and have lower confidence in investment decisions than men, a new survey finds. MassMutual's Retirement Services Division conducted an online survey between Nov. 15, 2010 and Jan. 15, 2011, of 1,517 participants in retirement plans on the MassMutual platform.
It found that men believe the stock market will improve in the next year at a ratio twice that of women. Women were significantly less confident in making their own investment decisions (25.9 percent) compared to men (44.1 percent). At the same time last year, the percentages were 32.8 percent for women and 47.8 percent for men. Men also enjoy learning about investments (71.7 percent) more than do women (54.4 percent), with about half of women responding that they prefer to spend as little time as possible on investment decisions.
Overall, only 37.3 percent of participants are confident in making their own investment decisions, which dropped from 42.5 percent last year. The survey indicates there is more anxiety about having adequate savings to retire. Overall, 66.6 percent say they are concerned they won't have enough saved for retirement with both men and women saying they are becoming more conservative in terms of their investing behavior.
In the past year, 61.7 percent became more conservative compared to 38.3 percent who became more aggressive. About 40 percent of all participants said being able to retire was their greatest concern. Managing debt is the greatest financial concern for participants under age 40, while being able to retire is by far the greatest concern for people 40 years old or above.
“Being able to retire is the greatest overall concern among defined contribution plan participants by a large margin—almost two and a half times the concern about healthcare costs, and much higher than job security and managing debt,” says Elaine Sarsynski, executive vice president of MassMutual's Retirement Services division and chairman and CEO of MassMutual International.
“In addition, 57.1 percent of participants are likely to seek help from a financial planning advisor in the next 12 months, with many preferring the assistance of the retirement plan advisor representing the plan.”
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