(03) 9020 2905Fences equal splinters in butt. So straight-talking it is.
Managing money comes down to income, spending and investment. You have less control over the first and ultimate control over the second two.
On average, Gen X guys will earn more. A good portion of the reason for this is because they’re missing a few bits (a uterus and breasts). The ones I’ve asked don’t seem upset by this.
But as women have these parts, their careers tend to be interrupted. This compounds, particularly with super, later in life. But having children is generally a choice made by couples, so the pain here should be shared.
Does this make Gen X men better money managers? No, but it certainly opens doors to be bigger money morons.
Which leads to spending. Boys and their toys. We waste stupendous bucks on cars (awesome wealth vacuums), punting, going to the footy, and on 465-inch flatscreens to watch every other sport we can’t get to.
Girls, the “need” to have Carrie Bradshaw shoe collection is a lie. The stats say you will spend, collectively, $6 billion on makeup this year (largely to impress each other, weirdly). You will also spend, individually, one year of your life clothes shopping, blowing $150,000 along the way.
When it comes to investing, guys think they have balls of steel and won’t seek help when they should. Women over-analyse and suffer from inertia. Just do it.
Winner? Like Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in The War of the Roses, there are no winners in the battle of the sexes.
Damnit. There’s a splinter in my butt!
Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and principal adviser with Castellan Financial Consulting.