Three out of four people in a couple would rather tell their partners about their finances before they met rather than their dating history.
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That’s the result of a new survey into relationships and debt. The research also found just under half of people did not feel responsible for helping their partners with pre-relationship debts and a third expected their new partners to help pay off what they owed.
While around 40% thought their partner’s debt negatively impacted the relationship.
Most couples (70%) agreed they generally communicated at least very well with their partner– and a quarter felt they communicated exceptionally well. Another two-thirds indicated that they discussed at least some aspects of their finances at least monthly.
Despite this, the survey for US financial firm Fidelity Investment did see some room to improve communication between couples worried about debt.
Problems couples have with debt
The survey also dug deep into the emotions couples had about their finances, and highlighted: Source: Fidelity Investments
“Debt can often feel like a burden, and those presently concerned about debt also are more inclined to identify money as their biggest relationship challenge,” said the 2018 Fidelity Investments Couples & Money Study.
What else do couples disagree over?
Besides debt, the researchers found couples have a host of other disagreements or misconceptions about each other.
One in five could not even agree how long they had been a couple.
Other conflicts were:
- 15% did not know their partner’s employment status
- 34% had no idea how much their partner earns
- 43% disagree over their planned retirement age
- 54% argued about how much they should have saved for retirement, with 49% admitting they had no idea how to work out how big their retirement pot should be
- 20% could not agree where to keep financial and legal documents, while 30% rowed about if their partner should have shared access to the document store
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