-   Men feel they save enough; women would benefit more from an extra
        $1500 of annual savings; both feel better when they have money set
        aside: Scotiabank study

TORONTO, Aug. 16 /CNW/ - When it comes to saving, women (69 per cent vs. 57 per cent of men) are more likely to say they can't afford to save more, while men feel they save enough already (29 per cent vs. 19 per cent of women), according to a recent Scotiabank study conducted by Harris/Decima assessing the saving patterns of Canadians. While both sexes equally say they feel much better when they have a safety net of savings (94 per cent for men, 95 per cent for women), men (71 per cent) are more likely to have a plan in place to achieve their saving goals compared to women (64 per cent).

"Our research shows that there are some fundamental differences between men and women when it comes to saving," said Mary Voteary, Scotiabank Branch Manager, Ottawa. "While women seem to focus on saving for the unexpected, men tend to be more goal-oriented. Both men and women have it right - it's great to save for goals, but it's also important to be prepared for the unexpected."

According to the study, more women (77 per cent) than men (66 per cent) stated that saving an extra $1,500 a year would improve their financial well-being, compared to the national average of 72 per cent. The study also revealed that 70 per cent of men reported that they save money at least once a month, in comparison to 64 per cent of women.

While men are significantly more prepared than women to have enough money saved to cover three or more months of household expenses (40 per cent and 27 per cent respectively) women are more willing than their male counterparts to make changes to their spending habits if they wanted to save more money (87 per cent for women, 79 per cent for men).

"We realize that there are a lot of demands on Canadians' wallets and we believe that everyone has money that can be saved - sometimes they just need help to find it," said Gerry Pettipas, Scotiabank Branch Manager, Halifax. "The key to saving success is saving automatically. Fifty-eight per cent of men and 53 per cent of women told us that they are already putting money aside on a regular basis and we encourage all Canadians to join them and Let the Saving Begin."

For more information about saving automatically, visit www.letthesavingbegin.com/facebook.

Let the Saving Begin is a Scotiabank program designed to inspire and empower Canadians to get on track with their saving, investing and borrowing habits.

Built on three simple principles, Let the Saving Begin encourages Canadians to:

-   Save automatically, because it works;
    -   Invest for your future, because no one else will; and
    -   Borrow to get ahead, not fall behind.

Scotiabank is one of North America's premier financial institutions and Canada's most international bank. With close to 68,000 employees, Scotiabank Group and its affiliates serve approximately 14.6 million customers in some 50 countries around the world. Scotiabank offers a diverse range of products and services including personal, commercial, corporate and investment banking. With more than $526 billion in assets (as at April 30, 2010), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (BNS) and New York Exchanges (BNS). For more information please visit www.scotiabank.com.

The Scotiabank Spring Savings Study was conducted online using Harris/Decima's online panel. A total of 502 men and 504 women were surveyed from March 26th, 2010 to March 31st, 2010. Surveys were conducted among a random sample of panel members across Canada.

This was a standard panel survey among a random sample of Harris/Decima's Canadian panel members. In a fashion similar to a telephone study, email addresses from Harris/Decima's panel were pulled at random, according to population and gender specifications, in order to make the study representative of the Canadian population by region and gender. When contacted to solicit participation, participants had no prior knowledge of the subject matter of the study. Harris/Decima controls access to the study through passwords to ensure that respondents can participate only once. Subsequent to completion of the study, the data was weighted by region, age, and gender.