February 13, 2015 – By Natalie Rutledge
Fifty percent of Americans have lied to their partners about money, according to recent survey from American Consumer Credit Counseling. As thousands of couples prepare to pledge their love to one another over the Valentine’s Day weekend, this poll shows half of them have taken part in financial infidelity.
Why do people lie about money in their relationships? The top reason was because one partner did not want to make the other person angry. Other responses included: not wanting to make the partner worry, embarrassment over the state of the finances, and attempting to hide money from the partner.
Perhaps the most devastating result from the survey was the fact that 10% of people said they do not communicate at all with their partner about their finances, and an additional 38% said they don’t communicated well.
Women seem to have a bigger issue with financial infidelity than men, with 55% saying they would end a relationship if they discovered their partner was hiding a large sum of debt. Only 37% of men said the same about their partners.
As you may expect, the survey found that married couples argue more about money than unmarried couples: 70% and 48% respectively. But having children did not seem to play a role in the arguments, as couples with and without children both reported the same amount of conflict.
