Beauty and The Buzz
LOVE, MONEY & HEARTBREAK by MSN.COM
Financial infidelity is rampant, according to MSN.com's Liz Pulliam Weston. Here's the story!
Is it cheating if you lie about where the money went? Yep. And it's every bit as damaging to your relationship as the physical kind.
by Liz Pulliam Weston
With money and marriage, there are lies. Then there are Big Lies.
Telling your spouse you bought something on sale when you didn't is a lie. Hiding five-figure credit card debt is a Big Lie.
Rhonda, a stay-at-home mother in North Carolina, has started to panic about her Big Lie. What started as a few charges here and there on her credit cards have ballooned over four years into an $18,000 tab.
"My husband is not really aware of how much I am in debt," Rhonda wrote me in an e-mail. "I feel out of control."
Most of us understand that Big Lies can be devastating for a relationship. But many of us still have a tough time staying absolutely truthful with our significant others when money's involved.
A survey that lawyers.com and Redbook magazine commissioned from HarrisInteractive in 2005 tells the tale. Harris interviewed 1,796 adults, ages 25 to 55, who were married, engaged or living together. Among the findings:
Virtually all the people interviewed (96%) said it was both partners' responsibility to be completely honest about financial issues.
Nearly 1 in 4 (24%) believed so strongly in this principle that they said openness about money is more important than being faithful. (As lawyers.com legal editor Alan Kopit put it, "They're saying, 'It's one thing to fool around. It's another thing to fool around with my hard-earned cash!'")
Still, almost one in three (29%) admitted they had lied to their partner about finances, most often about personal spending (21%) or spending on the kids (12%).
One in four (25%) said a partner has withheld financial information -- again, usually about personal spending (20%) and spending on children (11%).
Read more by logging on to MSN.com -
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/LoveAndMoney/FinancialInfidelityIsRampant.aspx?GT1=8690
Financial infidelity is rampant, according to MSN.com's Liz Pulliam Weston. Here's the story!
Is it cheating if you lie about where the money went? Yep. And it's every bit as damaging to your relationship as the physical kind.
by Liz Pulliam Weston
With money and marriage, there are lies. Then there are Big Lies.
Telling your spouse you bought something on sale when you didn't is a lie. Hiding five-figure credit card debt is a Big Lie.
Rhonda, a stay-at-home mother in North Carolina, has started to panic about her Big Lie. What started as a few charges here and there on her credit cards have ballooned over four years into an $18,000 tab.
"My husband is not really aware of how much I am in debt," Rhonda wrote me in an e-mail. "I feel out of control."
Most of us understand that Big Lies can be devastating for a relationship. But many of us still have a tough time staying absolutely truthful with our significant others when money's involved.
A survey that lawyers.com and Redbook magazine commissioned from HarrisInteractive in 2005 tells the tale. Harris interviewed 1,796 adults, ages 25 to 55, who were married, engaged or living together. Among the findings:
Virtually all the people interviewed (96%) said it was both partners' responsibility to be completely honest about financial issues.
Nearly 1 in 4 (24%) believed so strongly in this principle that they said openness about money is more important than being faithful. (As lawyers.com legal editor Alan Kopit put it, "They're saying, 'It's one thing to fool around. It's another thing to fool around with my hard-earned cash!'")
Still, almost one in three (29%) admitted they had lied to their partner about finances, most often about personal spending (21%) or spending on the kids (12%).
One in four (25%) said a partner has withheld financial information -- again, usually about personal spending (20%) and spending on children (11%).
Read more by logging on to MSN.com -
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/LoveAndMoney/FinancialInfidelityIsRampant.aspx?GT1=8690