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One of the things that most people don’t realize is that women are actually responsible for making most all of the money based decisions throughout today’s world. Women will make the most choices on the purchases for a household and will also make the majority of the decisions on investments. It’s the women that have a lot of the purchasing power and frankly some of the percentages are surprising.
The following is a breakdown of some of those percentages of purchases made by women.
•    83% will make the decisions on every consumer purchase
•    94% will make the decisions on the furnishings for a home
•    92% will decide on all aspects of a vacation
•    91% will make the decision on a new home
•    80% will make the decision on DIY home projects
•    51% will make the decision on the consumer electronics purchases (men will usually buy the TVs and things of that nature so this figure is a little skewed as it takes into account all electronics purchases)
•    60% will make the decision on car purchases (the figure is more accurately around 90% rather than 60% as the women will have an added 30% worth of influence on the final decisions)
•    89% will decide on which new bank account to open
•    80% will make the decision on healthcare
I’m sure you thought some of these would be high but not that high. Let’s keep going and talk about women in the workforce next.
In excess of 66% of working women with an additional of 50% of working wives actually will earn more than 50% of the total household income.
Women will:
•    Write 80% of the checks for the home, bills, etc…
•    Will pay 61% of all the bills
•    Will own 53% of all the stock decisions
Of all the women that are “wired” aka using the Web, 83% of those women are the primary decision maker on things of education, finances and healthcare for the families.
Making Good Decisions
Use a Budget
Of a list of the top 5 most expensive mistakes that women will make, listed in Working Woman Magazine) the #3 is them not using a budget.
Here is the total top 5:
•    Assuming that your current financial situation is a permanent one (things might be good now but it doesn’t mean they are going to stay that way)
•    Paying too much money for convenience
•    Not using a budget
•    Waiting for the “right time” to save
•    Fearing the wrong risks
The key to making good decisions it to take a new approach to your budgeting and with this the most important aspect is to have the right frame of mind.
You shouldn’t let your fear overcome and drive your ability to take control of your financial life. Although the creating of a budget can seem like a very complicated process the truth of the matter is that most budgets are actually pretty simple.
When it comes to developing any new habit, budgets are no different, you just have to take it step by step and realize that the payoff at the end is huge.