Cape Town - Thirty percent of South African women are willing to spend more than six months’ salary on their wedding, and 10 percent of women have a secret bank account their partner is unaware of.
This was revealed in the first annual Women’s Money Matters Survey 2012, conducted by Visa, in which 2 000 women from all income groups participated.
Fifteen percent of women think a budget of R50 000 or more is reasonable for a honeymoon.
Personal finance expert Maya Fisher-French said women needed to find a balance between saving and treating themselves.
“Would you sacrifice your daily cappuccino for a month in order to buy a pair of shoes for R450? Is spending money on beauty products to stay looking younger for longer worth cutting back on eating out?” she asked.
When it came to spending on make-up, the average spend is R339 a month, with three percent of women spending more than R1 000 on cosmetics a month.
Fifty-eight percent of women said they did not plan to work past the traditional retirement age of 65.
“Ability to retire is all dependent on how much you save during your working years. There is a great deal of research that shows that women have less money in retirement than men, although women need more money in retirement as we live, on average, seven years longer,” added Fisher-French.
Over a third of women wished they had a provident fund or retirement fund, suggesting they had made no provision for it thus far.
When it came to analysing SA women’s investment preferences, 71 percent said they had “savings in a bank”. This was followed by pension and provident funds at 37 percent, a house at 35 percent, retirement annuities at 31 percent, with 24 percent being members of a burial society. - Cape Argus