Is Your Partner Cheating… Financially? | NewsWatch Review

Financial Infidelity is Common Problem in Relationships; What Couples Can Do to Tackle Money Mistrust

Suspicious partners may find hidden pictures, emails or even lipstick-stained collars to indicate marriage infidelity—but a survey recently conducted by SmartAboutMoney.org reveals that financial deception is an issue just as significant among couples. Three in 10 (33 percent) coupled Americans who share finances admit to lying to their partner about their finances, according to the latest survey.

The survey pinpoints the top three sly tactics that people use to cheat on their partners financially:

• 30% have hidden a bank or credit card statement or a bill
• 17% have hidden a purchase
• 17% have hidden cash from their significant other
• 76% say financial deceptions had an effect on the relationship, including arguments, mistrust and even divorce

“Financial infidelity is a huge problem! What we found is that 2 out of 5 people in relationships are hiding or lying about money within the relationship and it could be anything from hiding a purchase or cash or a whole secret bank account to lying about how much money they make or how much debt they have or how they are spending their money on their credit cards. There’s a lot of warning signs that you can look for; running across a

receipt for something that you are not familiar with or your partner seems really defensive if you try to bring up the topic of money. If something like that’s happening you might need to have a conversation about it.” “You have to understand that it will probably be very stressful and very uncomfortable. We found that one of the reasons that people commit financial infidelity is because they are afraid of their partner’s disapproval or they are embarrassed about what they are doing. And so part of the conversation should be clearing the air and trying to remove that negative judgement about what’s going on with money. That’s really going to help prevent financial infidelity in the future and get partners on the same page and feeling good about working together with their money instead of trying to undermine eachother.” -Patricia Seaman, SmartAboutMoney.org

For more information visit smartaboutmoney.org

Produced for: National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), a non-profit foundation

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