When it comes to investing and saving for retirement, men and women are different.

Men are more likely to retire with more money and women are more likely to retire in poverty.

The reasons: Women generally live longer — so they need to save more money. They are more likely to leave work early to take care of children and/or parents, reducing their ability to save. Then there’s the wage gap: Women in Hawaii make an average of 83 cents to every dollar that men earn.

In addition, a recent study showed there’s a gender gap when it comes to financial education.

But there’s some good news. When they do start investing, women have traits and skills that can make them better investors than men.

“A lot of it has to do with the willingness of women to be patient and persevere,” said Gerri Walsh, one of the nation’s top investment educators.

Walsh is the keynote speaker at AARP Hawai’i’s upcoming “Women and Money: Secure Your Future” conference. We’re holding the conference at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i in Moiliili on July 14 to help women learn about financial planning, negotiating salary and benefits, Medicare, Social Security and other topics. It’s all aimed at giving women a better chance of living the life they choose as they age.

“Not enough men or women have been exposed to financial education,” said Walsh, who is president of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

A recent FINRA Foundation study showed that both men and women should be more educated about savings and investment, women have a greater need.

Women consistently lag behind men in financial literacy and investor literacy. Baby boomer women scored 19 percent lower than men of the same generation. Generation X women scored 18 percent lower.

The study concluded that lower levels of financial literacy among women may impede their ability to accumulate and manage assets and ultimately, secure a promising financial future.

A key finding is that women, especially in older generations, reported less exposure to financial education than men.

Walsh sees a few positives in the report, noting that the gap between men and women is narrowing among millennials to about 10 percent, with significantly more millennial women reporting they were offered financial education.

“We want to narrow that (financial knowledge) gap even further,” said Walsh, who also serves as senior vice president of investor education for FINRA.

Walsh will speak on how women can be better investors than men once they are empowered with knowledge, develop a savings habit and start investing.

“Women tend to plan more,” Walsh said.

“They talk more with their peers, with friends and they tend to benefit from that kind of financial coaching. … They’re not quite as frightened by risk and aren’t as likely to make rash decisions when the market rises and falls.”

AARP Hawai‘i hopes the July 14 workshop will help narrow the financial gender gap between men and women.

Men can come, but the workshop is aimed at women and is designed to be supportive of the women who attend.

We believe the first step to saving more and preparing for your future is to seek help and to be educated.

“Every single woman that is in the room when we hold these events will be a winner because they’ve opened their minds to learning and to gaining knowledge,” Walsh said.

Barbara Kim Stanton is the state director for AARP Hawai‘i, an organization dedicated to empowering people to choose how they live as they age.