Understanding Financial Tension in Relationships

• Most couples have disagreements and difference of opinion with matters related to money, due to many factors.
• We live in a society where attaining financial security is a huge challenge, whereas financial success is placed on a high pedestal.
• Marriage has traditionally been based on various economic factors unrelated to love and companionship. Families, land, wealth and resources have always dominated the alliance.
• We have a complex relationship with money and carry a lot of baggage in our heads, old belief patterns and behaviours, which spill into the relationship.

The subject of money becomes the centre of the cyclone in most relationships.

• As gender roles get skewed, old rules are getting thrown out the door and money is becoming a measuring scale of status, access, freedom, comfort, interdependence, independence, trust and loyalty.
• People who grew up poor would want to prove their worth, and others who grew up rich may not understand the need.
• The age of marriage is now a decade ahead then it was earlier, and most people are already economically independent, and may have also accrued various purchases and built a credit and debt portfolio.