Gender of the investor: for couples, who is the better investor, the man or woman?
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Here's a question: who handles the money and investing in your family?
What you're about to read could reinforce that choice or cause you to rethink it!
At the risk of touching off a debate in your household, not a fight just a conversation: women tend to be better at investing and handling money than men.
In a historically male-dominated domain, CBS News senior business analyst and certified financial planner Jill Schlesinger says that women are more patient traders.
"Trading, the in and out, the buying and selling, and trying to guess the bottom and the top, actually ends up costing you money," she said. "There is a lot of evidence that women tend to be more patient investors than men."
Schlesinger said that women invest from a position of confidence in their long-term game plan.
"There is researching showing that over time, women show better returns than men," she explained. "It's simply by virtue of the fact that they don't muck around with their game plan once it's set in place."
However, she added that it's important to remember that gender doesn't change the bottom line in investing – it's risky and there are no guarantees.
Schlesinger also has some tips for how couples can handle investing.
She starts by saying it shouldn't be one or the other making the decisions.
"I am really encouraging couples to get on the same page when it comes to investing," Schlesinger said.
Having agreed upon goals – such as how are we going to get there, how will we save for retirement and education – are a great place to start.
Then it's time to determine who will execute the plan.
"At least anecdotally in my life as an advisor, women would sort of buy into the game plan and stick to it," she said.
No matter the gender of the investor, Schlesinger says if you're the one doing the investing, make sure your partner understands the plan. She recommends a quarterly sit-down to go over progress and details.
"How it works, where does it love, what are the passwords, all these things we want couples to share," Schlesinger said.
She added that transparency allows for celebrating wins and sharing losses but once again, there are no guarantees and it is a risk.
Being open about what's going on helps you avoid the blame game when bad things happen and those certainly can.