Are you a financial cheater?
Jan 21, 2011, 8:59 AM | Updated: Mar 28, 2011, 3:48 pm
Listen Dave Ross Commentary – Listen: Are you a financial cheater?
Forbes reports on a survey of Americans which finds that 31 percent of married people admit to lying to their spouses about money.
Other surveys have found similar results — that couples will hide cash from each other, bills, minor purchases, and even MAJOR purchases. Sometimes even keeping secret bank accounts.
And in 2/3rds of the cases, it led to an argument.
Sometimes there’s a good reason to hide the money — if you have a partner with a gambling problem, for example — but most of the time it’s because one person really wants something and is afraid the other person is going to say no.
We’re using secret EARMARKS!
Folks, that only works in government — where they can just print money. And even there it doesn’t work so well.
MSN Money posted this topic on their web site and got all sorts of horror stories, like the woman who hid her $20,000 bonus from her husband… worried that he would lend it to his spendthrift mother.
Another wife admitted to keeping a secret slush fund for little splurges, because men rarely notice that new blouse anyway.
But this is bad. People who do this in their private lives are only a step away from doing it at work, and if this becomes the national culture — then we’re just another corrupt third world country.
DO not lie about money. Do not hide credit card debts.
Men especially — because I know something about this — if you need something, be up front. Be honest. Don’t try to hide the new pressure washer. Buy it for your wife for her birthday and lose the receipt.
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