Abstract

Both women and men desire to achieve their financial security. Financial planning, as a long-term method, allows us to manage certain financial aspects of our lives. However, women and men tend to have different financial behavior that may play a key role in financial planning. In this paper, we analyze the survey data collected by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to examine the gender effect on goal setting in financial planning. We observe that women overall tend to be more likely to set financial goals or create plans to secure the quality of life even though they are less financially knowledgeable and more economically disadvantaged in society. In particular, we identify that such gender difference is more noteworthy among working-age individuals but not among retirees. Further, we also explore how gender influences financial goal setting and planning decisions within different ethnic groups.

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