Last year, I was speaking at a gathering of wealthy male investors. The organizers posted the results of a survey showing that only a small percentage of wealthy men believed their wives spent too much.

'What?' shouted one participant. 'Those guys have to be lying.'

There is no reliable measure of who spends more among the rich: men or women. Both will say the other is the bigger spender.

A recent survey by Wilmington Trust, Campden Research and Relative Solutions proves the point. The companies polled 40 women (I know, that is more like a show of hands than 'survey'), each with a net worth of $25 million or more.

About half the respondents inherited their money, a quarter got it from their husbands and the other quarter earned it themselves. That is roughly in line with other surveys of wealthy women and the source of their money. One interesting note: among the self-made women, 90% got their money from owning a business, rather than earning a salary.

As for spending, almost all the women (90%) described their spending habits as 'below their means.' The report on the survey said that is 'possibly because they do not view their extreme wealth as defining their success.

'Women tend not to spend as much as men and splash their names all over the place,' said one woman in the survey, describing her spending as conservative and he lifestyle as 'below the radar.'

Many women also worried about wealth having bad effects on their children and didn't want to spend lavishly to set a bad example.

At the same time, 70% of the women said they 'buy nice things when necessary.' And 93.5% of the women said they were responsible for making decisions on major purchases, which implies that they do a lot of the big spending.

Of course, for truly major purchases a house in Aspen, Colo., a Gulfstream, a Feadship the couple probably makes the decision together.

But what about other purchases? Do you think men or women do most of the high-end spending?

去年，我曾在一个富有男性投资者的聚会上发言。组织者公布了一项调查的结果，显示只有很小一部分富翁认为自己的太太花钱太多。

有钱，但不显摆一位与会人士大叫道：什么？那些家伙肯定在说谎。

目前还没有可靠的方法来评断富人堆里谁花钱更多：是男性还是女性。双方都会说对方花钱更多。

由Wilmington Trust、Campden Research和Relative Solution最近联手进行的一项调查证明了上述观点。它们调查了40位女性（我知道，与其说是调查，不如说是举手了事），她们每位的资产净值都在2,500万美元以上。

约有一半的被调查者的财产是继承而来，四分之一得自丈夫，剩下的四分之一是自己赚的。这与我们对富有女性及其财富来源的调查基本相符。值得注意的一点是：在白手起家迈进富人行列的女性中，90%是自己当老板开公司赚的，而不是靠挣工资得来的。

至于支出，几乎所有女性（90%）都说自己的支出习惯是量入为出。调查报告中说，这可能是因为她们并不认为自己的极大财富就是成功的全部意义所在。

调查中的一位女性说，女性往往没有男性花钱多，也不会四处宣扬自己。她说自己的支出是保守型的，生活方式很低调。

很多女性也担心财富会对孩子造成不良影响，所以不希望乱花钱，以免给孩子树立坏榜样。

与此同时，70%的女性说，她们会在必要的时候买好东西。有93.5%的女性说，买大件的主意都是由她们定，这暗示她们经常花钱买大件。

当然，对于真正的大件──比如在科罗拉多州买座房子，一架湾流(Gulfstream)私人飞机，一艘Feadship游艇，夫妇两人可能会一起作决定。

不过买其他东西的时候呢？你认为男性还是女性的高端花销更多？