OUTS POKEN
There are lots of things
that scare me. Topshop.
Babies. Christine Bleakley.
The list is long and varied.
But top of it, always, is the thought of
not knowing what’s happening to my
money. Even if what’s happening is its
rapid disappearance via mortgage
repayments, conversion into Zara
Basics and monthly stipends to the
anti-Bleakley guards whom I hire to
patrol my domestic borders. I know
where it is at all times. I have to. I’d
go off my head if I didn’t.
But I was out with my girlfriends
recently and the talk turned (for once)
to our finances. Perhaps its rarity as
a conversation (we were meeting
up just after the emergency budget
had been announced) should have
forewarned me, but I was gobsmacked
to discover how little anyone at the
table seemed to know about her
finances – incomings, outgoings,
interest rates on mortgages and loans,
ISAs, tax bands… you would
have thought they were a
mystical fairyland, accessible
only to the anointed.
IT’S�A�RICH�
MAN’S�WORLD
And although statistically
drunker than average, the
women round the table
were representative of the
wider population. Research from
Scottish Widows suggests that we
laydeez do tend to lag behind our
menfolk in financial savvy. According
to the insurer only 47% of women are
saving enough for their retirement,
compared to 59% of men and almost
half of women without a private
pension (44%) think they will never pay
into one. The latest savings survey by
National Savings & Investments found
that while women said they wanted to
save over 16% of their salary every
month (versus 15% for men), men
����WWW�STYLIST�CO�UK
“WOMEN JUST AREN’T
USED TO WIELDING
THE POWER OF MONEY”
In our new column Stylist asks our favourite writers to tell us about
a topic they feel passionate about. First up is Lucy Mangan on money
LOVE
MY�GARDEN
IT’S A MIRACLE TO ME THAT IF YOU PUT
A PLANT IN SOIL, SLOSH WATER ON IT, IT
CAN TURN OUT AMAZING. OFTEN WHEN
NOBODY’S LOOKING, I HUG MY LAWN.
actually managed to save 7.15% of
their income every month compared
to 6.14% for women.
What is going on? Some of my
friends didn’t care and never would
(“It’s so booooring! It’s like maths
homework. And the only good thing
about being 35 is that I never have to
do maths homework again”) while
others were clearly deeply intimidated
by the subject.
What was most surprising – not to
say unsettling – was how many were
giving responsibility for their finances
to the nearest man in their lives:
C O L U M N
husbands, partners and (in one even
more unsettling instance) father.
If it were just laziness or the maths
homework allergy, I would expect the
genders to be equally afflicted, yet
I cannot imagine a tableful of men
announcing their lack of interest in, or
fear of facing up, to their finances. So
I suspect the reasons run deeper.
I think we still don’t feel quite right
about money. Historically speaking, our
advent into the workplace is recent.
Earning power is a new tool and we are
still learning how to wield it. We are
HATE
DO NOT BE DISTRACTED
BY THE PRETTY NAILS.
CONCENTRATE ON THE MONEY
COMPETITIVE�SPIRIT
WELL-KNOWN�WRITERS�TELL
�US�THEIR�THOUGHTS���
THE LAST FEW WEEKS OF THE NATION’S URGE TO
WIN AT SPORT HAS BAFFLED ME. I CAN’T WAIT
TILL THESE VISIONS OF GLORY ALIGN WITH MY
OWN. A CUP OF TEA AND A TUNNOCK’S CARAMEL
WAFER. NO STRESS. ALWAYS A SUCCESS.
not yet as comfortable as men are with
the idea that our money is indeed ours
and we don’t yet have the same
tradition of making it work for us.
TAKE�CONTROL�LADIES
Less charitably, I also suspect that
there is some lingering feeling that
knowing about money is somehow
unfeminine – like being good at maths
was. Other findings from the Scottish
Widows research, like the fact that
26% of women who can afford to save
for retirement don’t bother, compared
to 15% of men – makes me worry that
there is possibly even a small voice in
some women’s minds that still whispers
that they will marry someone rich
enough to take care of them one day.
This won’t do. Those who are still, in
the year 2010, thinking that a man will
rescue them are beyond redemption,
but others must take themselves in
hand. Start gently. The daily financial
pages in the papers are enough to
send any novice screaming for the hills,
but the money sections on Saturdays
are a lot friendlier. Make your new
book Love Is Not Enough: A Smart
Woman’s Guide To Money by Merryn
Somerset Webb, a splendid and
digestible guide to everything fiscal
(which is not nearly as rude as it
sounds). Find a well-informed friend
(a banker? They have more free time
these days…) and grill them.
Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance
is bills, credit cards and an unheated
home. And if you’re hanging out for
a husband, remember this – men die
earlier, and that’s
when you discover
they’ve got a
secret first wife
who inherits the
lot. Arm
yourself.”
Next week in Stylist:
writer Zoe Williams
PHOTOGRAPHY��GETTY�IMAGES��GUARDIAN�SYNDICATION
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.