Many people may be faithful in bed — but not with the bank statement.
A new survey has found that nearly half of adults with combined finances admit they’ve financially cheated on their partner. An online poll of 2,000 adults, conducted by the National Endowment for Financial Education in June, found that 43 percent of those with shared money had lied to their partner about spending, CNBC reported.
The monetary deception manifested in a number of ways, with 21 percent of respondents admitting they had lied to a partner about finances, debt or their income and 39 percent saying they had hidden a purchase, bank account, statement, bill or cash from their significant other.
While a multitude of reasons exists for being secretive with cash, the poll found respondents had mostly the same main motives. The subterfuge stemmed from a desire to keep some of their money a private affair, according to 38 percent. For 34 percent, the deceit arose after making a financial choice they believed their partner would disapprove of and 33 percent said they were simply too embarrassed to reveal whatever the monetary cheat they had committed was.
Despite the motive, nearly half (42 percent) of financial deceivers said the experience caused a fight — with some saying it led to the end of the relationship — but a not-insignificant amount of respondents said the dishonest act actually helped the relationship grow. For 19 percent of respondents, admitting to financial cheating helped them grow closer to their partner, and for 16 percent, it even improved their communication.
This makes sense to the president and CEO of the National Endowment for Financial Education, who believes that discussing finances is vital to getting on the same page as one’s partner.
“As a society, we talk about money with the assumption that everyone starts at the same place in terms of understanding, and that is very untrue,” Billy Hensley told CNBC. “At the foundation of it is that we don’t provide enough financial education in schools or in any other venues so people have the confidence necessary to approach these topics early on.”