A Comparative Study on Allowance Allocation Among Our Lady of Perpetual Succor

College Senior High School Male and Female Students School Year 2019 - 2020

Group 4

Elauria, Earl Hyannis

Chantiaco, Bianca

Espinosa, Katryn

Jocson, Jasper

Lazar, Paul

Mendoza, Roselle

12 – Jeremiah
 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discussed literature review which provides supporting and empirical studies

related to “A Comparative Study on Allowance Allocation Among Our Lady of Perpetual Succor

College Senior High School Male and Female Students School Year 2019 - 2020”

Difference Between the Gender in Personal Finance

Personal finance is a term that covers managing your money and saving and investing.

(Investopedia, 2019) It is the financial management which an individual or a family unit performs

to budget, save, and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial

risks and future life events. And, as stated by Nandan & Dr. Fernandez (2017) in their study entitled

“A Study on the Gender Differences in the Spending Attitude and Behavior of IT Professionals in

Urban Bangalore” the main goal of personal finance is the efficient allocation of financial

resources which in turn paves way for financial security and independence. This also helps an

individual or family in meeting expected expenses as well as monetary contingencies. This is a

very important element in every aspect of an individual’s life since it deals with almost everything.

There are also various factors influencing personal finance and one of those is gender.

According to Robert (2014) A lot of men, especially guys in their twenties, have a hard

time managing money. They live paycheck-to-paycheck and are constantly going broke. And, that

is because men like to get in, get what they need, and get out fast. Men aren’t major comparison

shoppers and they’re willing to pay a little more to speed up the process than to spend time hunting

down bargains (Lewis, 2018). In The Wall Street Journal, Delia Passi, CEO of the research and

consumer advocacy group WomenCertified, claims that to men, the worst outcome is to walk out
of a store empty-handed. Men are also more likely to accept a less-than-ideal product, preferring

to avoid another shopping trip. Meanwhile, As stated by Livingston (2019) when we talk about

investing the 2015 BlackRock survey found that men as a group are more interested in investing

than women. Perhaps because men are more interested in investing, they’re also more

knowledgeable about it. Also, men are much more confident in their money than women. They are

most likely to take risks with their money. Since riskier investments tend to offer higher returns in

the long run, it might seem obvious that men’s higher tolerance for risk would translate to better

returns. Furthermore, she also stated that men save more. A 2015 study by BMO Harris found that

the average man has nearly twice as much stashed in an emergency fund as the average woman.

Also, a 2014 analysis by TurboTax found an even bigger difference: Over the course of their

lifetimes, men save more than three times as much money, on average, than women do.

On the other hand, A study conducted by Garrison (2010), showed that females had

exposure to significantly more financial social learning opportunities than males. Also, females

were more likely than males to have observed their parents managing expenses and avoiding

overspending, paying bills on time, saving and investing money. Also, women are trained to

nurture and seek acceptance and so view money as a means to create a lifestyle. Women spend on

things that enhance day-to-day living. Theirs is a now-money orientation. “Women are the

collectors of stuff and are taught that what they need to get through life is approval (Alban, 2019).

In addition, according to Weisbaum (2014), women tend to be more astute consumers than men,

simply because they are willing to invest the time and energy necessary to research and compare

products, allowing them to save money and get a quality product by doing bargains. When impulse

buying, women tend to keep their impulse purchases small, under $25 and women are more likely

to regret making an impulse purchase. Meanwhile, when it comes to investing Livingston (2019)
stated that women seek help more than men because women’s lack of confidence and investment

knowledge can make them unwilling to plunge into investing on their own. And when they invest

on their own, they tend to research investments more carefully before buying than men do. Women

also focus more on the long term because they are much more focused on long-term goals – not

just for themselves, but also for their families. Instead of aiming to earn the highest possible return,

they think about whether they’re on track to retire in 20 years, pay off their mortgage, or put their

kids through college. Women’s more conservative investments produce smaller gains but also

smaller losses, putting them slightly ahead over the long term. And, in terms of saving women are

said to save less than men because they put most of their money into health insurance and

retirement funds.

Expenses of Male and Female Students

According to Collins English Dictionary (2019), Expense is the money that something

costs you or that you need to spend in order to do something. And, as a student it is normal to

spend money or allowance in order to acquire things that we need personally or required in school.

In the article entitled “Personal Expenses for College Students” by O’Donnell (2019), he

stated there the 3 categories which the students’ money/allowance goes. The first category is

Academic costs, this covers the other administrative fees related to enrolling/attending, books and

other class materials/supplies, the laboratory fees and the Tech-related expenses such as computer

or tablet, printer, print cartridges, or fees to use the school's computer lab. The second category is

Social and activity expenses, this includes the cost of going out to eat and/or socialize, dues and

other fees related to joining campus organizations, athletic event tickets, fees related to Greek life,

if you decide to join a fraternity or sorority. And, the third category is Day-to-day/personal

expenses, this involves the room and board, including on-campus housing and meal plans, rent,
utilities, and groceries if living off-campus, cell phone and WiFi service, furnishing/outfitting a

dorm room or apartment, transportation expenses, whether for getting around at school or traveling

home on breaks, health insurance, co-pays, prescriptions and other incidental medical costs that

come up and may not be covered until your deductible is met, and personal expenses, such as

clothes, toiletries and laundry costs.

As a student both male and female have similar expenses, but it differs once you remove

the word student because when you look at them individually, you will see there is a significant

difference between the two and that is their gender. And that is supported by the study of Nandan

& Dr. Fernandez (2017) where in it was indicated that gender is the most powerful determinant of

how we see the world and everything in it. While gender plays a significant role in the spending

of men and women, their reasons and methods differ greatly. The motives for spending and the

channels of spending differ between men and women since the two sexes differ in their

perspectives, motives, rationales and action.

According to Alban (2019) For as long as there has been money, whether you were born a

man or a woman meant that you were most probably raised to view and spend money very

differently. That’s why according to surveys conducted in The US, the top 5 things men and

women choose to spend their money on.

Men spend their money on the followings: (1) Investments, with as much progression in

equality between the sexes as we’ve had, men are still the primary bread winners in most cultures,

(about 25% of women in The US make more money than their husbands or boyfriends) and caring

for the future of their family is a duty most happily accept. (2) Entertainment, this includes

electronics, games, movies, TV, music, travel and events which cover the majority of male

spending. Male spending on these purchases is usually reoccurring and tend to come with
expensive additions. As the need to be more digitally connected and state of the art continues, our

obsession with technology. (3) On Women/Love/Online Dating, with these 3 all falling under the

same heading, men see finding love as important as women; with the one thing the sexes seeming

to have in common is the need for companionship. Men and women are very willing to spend their

hard-earned money on. That’s when the dinners, gifts, coffees and movie tickets get factored in.

(4) Hobbies and Sports, from collections of cars, guitars and musical gadgets to stamps, model

aeroplanes, train sets and coins, every man enjoys a hobby and is willing to pay enormous amounts

to enjoy it. (5) Betting and Gambling, Men love any opportunity to make something they already

enjoy watching even better and putting a wager on your favourite sports team or horse takes the

5th place position for male spending. Proven to make more money than the lotteries, the gambling

industry provides men with everything they like: risk, adrenalin, competition and potentially fast

rewards.

On the other hand, women spend their money on the followings: (1) Shopping, for women

shopping is an adventure for the senses and a great way to indulge them. With sales and coupons

regularly made the most use of, women may come home with a lot of bags, but the total cost of a

women’s shopping isn’t even comparable to a man’s number 1 spending choice. However,

shopping is only a temporary source of happiness for women, with the order going: pets, sex, food,

friends and then shopping. (2) Beauty, with the popularity of gossip and fashion magazines and

with wealthy reality TV stars often gracing the covers, everything from anti-aging products to

cosmetic surgery has women spending thousands of dollars a year on beauty products in order to

look as good as them. With niches that extend to eyebrow shaping and bejewelling ones private

parts, women fuel a never ending fire that keeps the beauty industry flourishing. Japanese men are

now even buying cosmetics. Factor in all the places on a woman’s body that might be seen in
public (hair, nails, feet, face, skin) and there will be five different methods to make it look and

smell good. (3) Health and Fitness, along with the fear of illness and death comes the large majority

of female spending on preventative measures and natural remedies to stay fit and healthy. We all

know the benefits a healthy lifestyle can have in extending one’s lifespan and this includes

vitamins, supplements, medicines and tea. (4) Love/Online Dating, the booming online dating

industry sees millions of dollars being spent on personal ads, online dating websites, relationship

books and this even extends to pets, with women choosing their partner based on the pets each

owns. (5) Home Furnishings, women are said to be responsible for today’s luxury trend. Women

enjoy spending their cash on making the home warm and friendly for their family and guest.

To synthesize, gender difference is a major factor affecting one’s personal finance. On the

first theme, it is said that personal finance is an act which involves managing, saving and investing

money. Managing money to students can also be called allowance allocation since the money that

every student receive is called allowance and allocation is somehow similar with managing. The

theme emphasizes the personal finance of both genders. Men are more likely to go broke because

they do not know how to spend their money right. They are not cost conscious enough that’s why

they end up being broke. Even though they are not good at spending their money in a rightful way,

they know how to invest their money wherein it will surely bloom and gain more interest. Men are

born to be risk takers, they are confident with what they have and trust themselves more than

anyone else. And, with that the save a lot more money because of their investments. On the other

hand, women are said to have more knowledge in managing their money because they are the

one’s who paid much more attention when they parents manage their money. Women also knows

how to seek bargains that could lessen the amount of money to be paid. But when it comes to
investing, it is said that women have lesser confidence than men and they are afraid of taking high

risks especially when it comes to money that’s why they end up only investing small amount of

money and receiving small profit out of it and that result to low amount of savings.

On the second theme, it focuses about the similarity and dissimilarity of the expenses of

both genders. As we all know, as a student both genders has the same expenses and it can be

categorized into 3 categories namely Academic costs, Social and Activity expenses and Day-to-

Day/Personal expenses. The given categories are the most common expenses that every student

have regardless of the gender. Once you remove the word student from the female and male student

everything will change because gender has different ideas especially when it come to expenses.

Other than the given expenses for the student, men spend most of their money on investments,

entertainment, on women/love/online dating, hobbies and sports, and betting and gambling. While

women spend their money on shopping, beauty, health and fitness, love/online dating, and home

furnishings. Most of the expenses of men are just focused to themselves unlike the expenses of

women it could benefit them and the people that surrounds them.
Conceptual Framework