Women still lag behind men when it comes to looking after their money according to Australian money whiz and best-selling author Vivienne James.

James wrote the very popular (now into its third edition) The Women’s Money Book to try and educate women about how to better look after their finances.

She says women have the odds stacked against them when it comes to financial issues.

Firstly, women generally spend less time in the workforce than men. The time they do spend working can be interrupted by having and then bringing up children. Even when they are working women still, on average, tend to earn less than men.

On top of that, women live longer – on average nearly a decade more than men – meaning they had to support themselves for longer, James said.

Those who did invest also tended to earn less on their investments because they were more risk-averse. Women tended to put their money in safe but low-interest cash and bank deposits rather than speculating on shares and property investments.

James also said that women are still more vulnerable to things beyond their control; things like divorce, redundancy or the death of a partner.

“These are really powerful wake-up calls which make women painfully aware of their financial vulnerability,” James said.

A recent US- based survey by Merrill Lynch Investment Management (MLIM) confirmed that men and women were different when it came to investment decisions.

MLIM president Robert Doll said that while women were more risk-averse, “women know what they don’t know and aren’t afraid to ask for help”.

Because of that, women were much more likely to have a financial adviser than men. As a result, women make fewer investment mistakes than men. And they were less likely than men to repeat the same mistake twice, he said.

The survey showed both men and women made some common investment mistakes. They were:

- putting too much money in a single investment,

- not selling losing investments,

- waiting too long to start investing,

- not saving enough.