“Have you ever heard a joke so many times you’ve forgotten why it’s funny?  And then you hear it again and suddenly it’s new.  You remember why you loved it in the first place.”

These are the words of William Bloom – a character in the 2003 film Big Fish directed by Tim Burton and adapted from the novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by author Daniel Wallace.

We hear so often that spouses have differing views on things ranging from the trivial (where should we eat out tonight?) to the life altering (should we have kids?) that we forget why reconciling them is so important.  When there’s a disconnect we must find harmony through open, honest communication.  We must ensure one spouse’s intentions match another’s perceptions.

To this end many endeavor to find out how spouses view their finances with the hope of providing straightforward and practical guidance.  The PNC Financial Services Group offers insight through their most recent Wealth and Values Survey.

Conducted online within the U.S. in September and October of 2010 the study asked 1,097 adults with over $500,000 of investable assets and a minimum annual income of $150,000 their thoughts on a variety of financial topics in the “post-meltdown” world. Here are the results:

  • 49% of women vs. 39% of men feel they are planning their finances more cautiously
  • 51% of men vs. 38% of women say “nothing has changed”
  • 69% of women vs. 54% of men say they are concerned about the recession
  • 51% of women vs. 44% of men are concerned about inflation
  • 46% of women vs. 40% of men say they are concerned about having enough money to support their lifestyle
  • 45% of women vs. 35% of men are worried about declining real estate values
  • 41% of men vs. 27% of women describe themselves as high or moderate risk investors
  • 46% of women say they are balanced investors
  • 27% of women say they are conservative investors
  • 55% of men vs. 45% of women say they “derive pleasure from wealth accumulation”

In a very interesting finding 53% of men say they are the ones most responsible for financial decisions, 17% of women say they are most responsible and 73% of women feel responsibility is shared. Something doesn’t add up!