Money, An Unavoidable Subject Among Happy Couples

In a relationship, money tends to accelerate behaviours that need to be identified and checked. Everyone develops different attitudes and habits towards money, so it is essential not to avoid the subject and to communicate.

In a relationship, one person often makes the financial decisions and this can reduce tension and stress when you find out who is. It is necessary to understand each person’s style of behaviour around money and to have discussions early in the relationship.

If these conversations don’t happen, both members of the couple may make financial decisions on their own, especially the one who tends to manage the money. However, such behaviour can quickly cause dissension in the relationship and will put a strain on it, warns Advisorpedia.

Not having a conversation about money leads to a lack of understanding and respect for the other person’s attitude towards money. This often results in poor financial behaviour and money is then blamed for the breakdown of the relationship.

So the earlier in the relationship that conversations about money happen, the better. A counsellor can help couples have these sometimes difficult discussions and make sure that finances are no longer a taboo subject.

What to talk about

The first thing to do is to push each member of the couple to work on themselves and evaluate their knowledge, their passions and their values towards finances. Especially since partners often do not come from the same economic background.

Both partners need to understand each other so that they can then talk to each other and have clear and easily formulated life goals. Once these goals are known, the couple can ensure that they build a life that is interdependent, not co-dependent, and better manage the joint budget, in which each partner can live with some independent freedom while remaining emotionally connected to each other.

So the best place to start is with a relationship based on healthy, open conversations about any topic, especially money, that stirs emotions.

Behavioural analysis provides a better understanding of how people approach money and offers partners a way to dig into their relationship to have healthy, open conversations about finances.

It’s easier to set boundaries as a couple and target potential problems or imperatives. For example, if spending is an issue, it’s better to start by talking about a spending plan rather than a budget or savings plan.

Who still manages to save money: study reveals

Less than 40% of people now say they can save at the end of the month, a figure that has been falling for some years, with a few surprises…

Once the unavoidable expenses have been met (food, housing, energy bills, etc.), less than 40% of French people say they will be able to save in 2021. A figure that has changed in the space of a few years.

This observation, made on October 21 by an Ifop-JDD study, deserves to be taken into account, at a time when the political class is seizing on the theme of purchasing power, which has been made a priority by the French.

Read: Conquer Happiness: Can we decide to be happy?

The game has changed in ten years

The number of people who say they are able to save money has literally melted in a decade. Less than four out of ten French people are now able to do so. They were 44% in 2014 and more than half of the population in 2010 (54%).

But poor households manage to save

People with a long education save more easily than those without a degree (62% versus 27%) and logically fewer poor households are able to do so, but some are able to do so: 21% of them manage to put money aside with less than €900 of income per person.

It’s easier before 35

This is one of the surprises of this study: 45% of the under 35s explain that they have the possibility of saving money at the end of the month, compared to 36% of the over 35s.

New gender inequality

Another form of inequality to the detriment of women: only 31% of women are able to save, compared to 47% of men.