Wealth Comparison: Men vs Women

Men generally have more money than women. That may not be a surprise since men tend to have higher incomes as well. However, I didn’t expect the difference to be so big. In 2005 in Canada, the median male had $184,964 of wealth, and the median female had $105,470. That makes guys 75% richer than girls on average. And around the same time the median family net worth in the US was $93,100. This of course doesn’t mean Canadians are richer than Americans, our wealth is just distributed differently than their’s.

The good news for younger adults is that our bar has been set pretty low. The median net worth for my gender and age group for example is only $28,203. Although my net worth is higher than that, the median debt to asset ratio for this same group is 0.41, where mine is over 0.70, which means for every dollar I have, I owe someone else more than 70 cents. I know carrying around almost a quarter million dollars of debt in my 20s is kind of risky but I can’t help myself from borrowing more and more because credit is just so cheap and easy to get.

So men apparently have 1.75 times more money in general than women. So here is some quality advice. Ladies, don’t settle for any man who is struggling with his debt because there are plenty of other guys out there who are more financially sound. And guys, don’t marry a girl just because she likes you for your money.

 

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thatthingcallmoney
thatthingcallmoney
10/29/2011 6:40 pm

Hi there, thanks for leave a common on my blog. I have the same goals as you do…financial freedom (and at a young age). Though you are ahead of the game than I am. I wish I had clear goals about life and money when I was at your age. Well better late than never. One area I want to learn about is the stock market. I opened a Questrade account back in July and trialling things out very slowly. My saving capacity is pretty small after all other bills and what not are covered so this will be a slow process for me. I am also trying to save to buy a house (with a rental suite) by early 2013. There are also few things I need to save/spend money on. One step at a time I guess. As I begin my journey to learn more about investing, I will be checking back on your blog for tips :). Your Hedge page is very great strategy. I have read it about in a financial/investing book once but didn't give it too much thought. Now I think I will go back and have another look to develop my strategy in… Read more »

Liquid Independence
10/30/2011 4:50 am

@ thatthingcallmoney.
Hi, thanks for dropping by. A house with a rental unit sounds like a great idea. The extra income should make owning that home more affordable. I'm trying to learn a much as I can about investing as well. The journey to freedom is different for everyone but we all have the same destination in mind. We can definitely learn from others as we make our own investment strategies.

~Liquid