FIGHTING OVER MONEY

Fighting over money with your better half? Join the club.

Finances are the main reason of stress in a relationship, according to a survey of people in a relationship or partnership released Wednesday by SunTrust Bank. About 35 per cent of all respondents experiencing relationship stress said money was the main cause of friction. Annoying habits came in second, at 25 per cent. Among respondents aged 44 to 54 with relationship stress, 44 per cent said money was the primary reason.

‘Money really touches everything,’ said Emmet Burns, brand marketing director for SunTrust. ‘It impacts people’s lives.’

Money and stress do seem to have a close relationship for many people. A study released by the American Psychological Association in 2015 found almost three quarters of Americans are experiencing financial stress at least some of the time, and nearly a quarter of us are feeling extreme financial stress.

Some 34 per cent of the respondents said they were the ones who saved money and their partner was the opposite, the one who spent money. However, just 13 per cent said the reverse. That also means that 47 per cent of the respondents said they and their partner had different saving and spending habits.

Burns said, ‘A spender or a saver is really in the eye of the beholder.’

Couples not only argue about money, but they also hide transactions from each other. One in 5 Americans in a relationship says he or she has spent $500 or more and not told his or her partner, and 6 per cent maintain secret accounts or credit cards, according to a poll conducted by CreditCards.com.

The SunTrust study is being published on the heels of a similar survey by Ally Bank. The survey was not limited to people married or in relationships. In that survey, 55 per cent of the respondents said that a strong budgeting and saving strategy was the most appealing money-related quality a partner or potential partner could have. In addition, three fourths of the respondents to this survey said it was reasonably or highly important to find a partner with a similar approach to money and budgeting. Two thirds of the Ally Bank survey respondents said they did not have serious arguments with significant others about money.

Ally conducted the survey in December. The respondents were in the middle of a robust holiday shopping season. SunTrust’s survey was taken in January. It was the time when outsized post-holiday credit card bills were landing.

Adapted from the CNBC website