Hey big spender

Forget the usual quips about women and shopping, it's older men who are now making a beeline for the high street. Nicky Burridge explores the curious spending habits of the Modern & Mature generation...

Men are the financially astute ones, the cautious planners who keep close tabs on their money and rarely blow it, while women are more likely to enjoy a shopping spree and have a weakness for that new dress or pair of shoes - or so the popular stereotype goes.

But new research has turned traditional perceptions of men and women's attitude to shopping on its head, showing that men are just as likely to hit the high street as women and they enjoy shopping simply as a way of passing the time.

The study, which was commissioned by Direct Line Home Insurance, found that as soon as men hit 50, their attitude towards shopping undergoes a revolution, with 57% of men over 50 saying they now enjoy shopping more than ever, while 29% say they see shopping as a leisure pursuit now that they have more time on their hands.

In fact, men are spending nearly 40% more than women each year, collectively blowing £11.6 billion on clothes, sports equipment and gadgets such as MP3 players and digital cameras, while women get through just £8.3 billion.

The group has dubbed these men MOFS - standing for Male Over Fifty Spenders. More than half of men over 50 admit they shop for a luxury item once a week, while 5% confess to hitting the high street every day. The research found that older men see shopping as a right rather than a privilege, with one in 10 claiming they feel that they deserve to buy new things, while 8% say they like to impulse shop because it makes them feel like they live for the moment.

Around 3% of men even admit they have splashed out on sports cars, motorbikes and boats in a bid to re-live their younger years and many say they are particularly keen to acquire the latest technology, with 10% buying an iPod during the past year, compared with just 4% of women, while 41% have bought a computer, 43% a digital camera and 36% a DVD player.

Simon Ziviani, of Direct Line Home Insurance, says: "Our research shows that modern older men aren't turned off by shopping in the way that their fathers might have been. On the contrary, they are embracing consumer culture and are particularly keen not to be left behind by technology, snapping teenagers." Separate research carried out for Morgan Stanley shows that men are also much more likely to use their credit cards to buy things than women. The group found that during a three month period men spent nearly a third more on their plastic than women, getting through an average of £976, compared with women's £756.

Psychologist Mo Shapiro, author of Shift Your Thinking - Change Your Life, said: "I think men often at that age suddenly realise what they have missed out on, not just shopping but also with family. They also feel they deserve it. They have earned all this money and they deserve it."

"When men say they hate shopping what they mean is they hate being dragged around clothes shops by their female partner."

She added that men who were buying technology items were also extending their working lives by continuing to surround themselves with things such as computers that had become familiar to them while they were working.

But Kate Fox, a social anthropologist and author of Watching the English, is not surprised by the research and suggests men have always enjoyed shopping, they just shop in a very different way to women. She says: "When men say they hate shopping what they mean is they hate being dragged around clothes shops by their female partner or being sent to Sainsbury's. What they have always enjoyed is shopping for things that they want."

She says there are also major differences in the way men and women shop. "It's a hunter gatherer split. Men shop like hunters, women like gatherers. For men shopping is a means to an end. However, much they say it is a leisure activity, they do it to get x, y, or z. They hunt their prey down, stab it and bring it home.

"Women are more opportunistic. We will go out and browse and monitor. It's called looking around the shops. Its motivation is seeing what is there and what's on sale." She says men end up spending more because, unlike women, they would not be able to go out for a whole day of shopping and come home without having bought something and still feel they had had a good day out. She says women will happily spend a whole day at the shops and buy only a pair of tights or a lipstick, whereas men will buy much more expensive items in a much shorter time.

So are men's spending habits problematic? Morgan Stanley thinks not. It research shows that on average people in their 50s pay off 90% of their credit card bill each month, with two-thirds of people paying their bill in full and 21% having nothing to pay off at all. Only 6% of people in the age group paid off less than half their bill. The group concludes: "All in all the over 50s are very sensible spenders."