"They're too psyched out to invest wisely," says Tessa Albert Warschaw, a psychologist and the author of "Rich Is Better: How Women Can Bridge the Gap Between Wanting and Having It All."

Truckloads of statistics, compiled by everyone from mutual fund companies to universities, underscore the point. While specific figures vary among ethnic and gender groups, the bottom line is that members of these groups save less, invest less, start financial planning later in life and invest more conservatively than others. Consequently, they accumulate fewer assets and are more likely to fall into poverty when they're retired.

The reasons behind these statistics are myriad.

By and large, these groups earn less, so they have less money to save. Coupled with that simple fact is a psychological barrier: When it's this hard to earn money, people hesitate to risk it in the financial markets.

Social factors play a role too. These women generally are so busy helping their families, or proving that they're successful by buying luxury items, that they simply don't have cash left over to save or invest.

And they are less likely to be educated in investing. They score lower on tests of financial acumen and rate themselves lower in financial abilities. Because they appear to know less about finances and are less comfortable with what they do know, they invest poorly.

There are simple solutions, experts agree. Like 12-step programs, they all start with recognizing the psychological hurdles and then taking small--but consistent--steps to get past them.

Some of the problems:

* Distrust.

Many Latinos--particularly first-generation Americans--are so distrustful of financial institutions that they won't keep their money in a bank, says Laura Castaneda, co-author of "The Latino Guide to Personal Money Management." As a result, they end up paying premium prices for check-cashing services and basic banking needs, while giving up the chance to earn interest on their money.

"I have an uncle who kept cash between the pages in his phone directories," Castaneda says, sighing. "You don't earn interest on that."

* Poverty/deprivation mentality.

"Many of us come from childhoods of lack and deprivation. We try to make up for it by buying things," says Juliette Fairley, author of "Money Talks: Black Finance Experts Talk to You About Money."

But being a consumer prevents you from being a saver and investor, she laments. "We are spending money that we could be investing."

* Guilt, ambivalence and "vacant hope."

Women fall into a variety of traps, says psychologist Warschaw. If they get money, they feel guilty and undeserving. If they don't, they reason that it's probably for the best because getting something requires trade-offs they're not sure they want to make. Often they wish for economic security but don't take the steps to attain it.

These three experts agree that education can go a long way toward fixing these inequities. They take pains in their books to explain the costs of these cultural or psychological burdens.

Castaneda, for example, explains that some Latino immigrants shy away from banks because they are used to high inflation and unstable financial institutions in their homelands. She believes that by educating the Latin market about the safety of U.S. banks--and comparing the cost of opening an account with the cost of paying piecemeal for check-cashing services and money orders--she'll be able to prod many of these families into taking the first step, getting their savings into interest-bearing accounts.