If youโre guilty of hiding Amazon packages from your partner or being sneaky about those trips to Target, youโre not alone. Going behind your S/Oโs back and spending money they wouldnโt approve of is something known as โfinancial infidelityโ and more than 30% of Americans say theyโve done it.
This also includes withholding secret accounts, cards, and debt from your partner.ย Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst for CreditCard.com suggests thereโs an underlying issue at play: a lack of trust and communication. โIt can really undermine trust if youโre keeping secrets,โ he says.
Couples agree that financial infidelity is a pretty bad thing too. More than half of the adults surveyed said that itโs just as bad, if not worse than physical cheating.ย Here are the top reasons why adults are dishonest about their finances with their partners.
- A third never felt the need to share their finances
- 30% have a desire to control their own finances or maintain privacy around money
- 25% are embarrassed about the way they handle money
The survey also found that itโs actually pretty normal for most adults in committed relationships to keep some of their finances separate โ married or not.
- More than half of couples keep at least some separate financial accounts
- 34% have both joint and separate accounts
- 23% keep everything completely separated