Financial Problems in a Relationship

According to Blood and Wolfe’s study (1960:224), of the eight possible areas of husband-wife disagreement – children, recreation, personality, in-laws, roles, values, sex, and money – money causes the greatest number of problems. Budget and the planning of financial goals, reflect what is important in the life of an individual and what are the couple’s expectations regarding how they should live and what they should have. Different attitudes to spending income lead to increased disputes about finances and thus to a relationship instability. Higher status families that are better off financially are by no means immune to financial problems and disagreements. Partners from different cultures may have extremely different financial attitudes and economic values, such as, for example, what they consider to be “basic” expenses.