Only one in five women in Ireland “feel in control and confident” about their personal finances, a new survey has found, recording a notably lower result than the proportion of men who feel so.
Just 21 per cent of women responded to the question positively, compared to 35 per cent of men, according to insurance and wealth management advisers NFP.
With 28 per cent of all respondents displaying a confident sentiment on their financial standing, NFP’s head of employee benefits, Sarah McGurrin, said these findings show “financial worry is common and, for a significant proportion of people, it is something they experience on a regular or ongoing basis”.
Half of female respondents reflected that they “manage, but money worries are always in the background”, whereas 40 per cent of male respondents agreed with that statement.
Nineteen per cent of women said their finances “regularly cause stress or anxiety” and 11 per cent said they “feel financially overwhelmed most of the time”, compared to 18 per cent and 7 per cent of men, respectively.
The difference in how men and women feel about their finances “is particularly striking”, McGurrin said.
“Women are significantly more likely to report stress and worry about money and are more likely to feel financially overwhelmed, while men are more likely to describe themselves as feeling in control or optimistic about their financial future.
“This suggests that financial resilience is not being felt evenly across society, and points to the importance of targeted supports and financial wellbeing initiatives,” she added.
When considering their economic outlook for the coming year, 17 per cent of women and 24 per cent of men expected to “get financially stronger”, the survey found, with 43 per cent of all respondents expecting to “stand still”.
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Just over one in five of all respondents “expect to fall behind”, while approximately one in six “already” feel as though they are “slipping backwards” in their personal finances.
“These experiences are likely being shaped by ongoing cost-of-living pressures, higher housing costs and wider household financial demands, including energy price volatility,” McGurrin continued.
“When these factors persist over time, they can understandably influence how people feel about their financial stability and their confidence in planning ahead,” she said.
Geographically, the survey found that people in Dublin “are most likely to feel in control of their finances”, at 32 per cent, “while people in Connacht [and] Ulster are least likely to feel this way”.
It also found people over the age of 55 were by far the most likely to feel financially in control, with 41 per cent of them answering favourably, while only 17 per cent of those between 25 and 34 years of age felt so.