Couples and Relationships: Love or Money?

What role does money play in your relationship?

 

As I mentioned in my last post, I have found in my couple counselling practice that money is one of the “big four” issues for unhappy couples.

Why is money often such a major source of conflict?

My experience with my clients has really brought home to me that each of us has an individual relationship to money and finances and that money represents different things to different people.

We each develop our own relationship with money from a very young age and our views on financial matters are shaped by our experiences as we grow up (including the internalising of  our parents’ and other caregivers’ approaches to their finances) and our individual temperaments.

In addition, money tends to be a highly emotional issue to most of us as it represents security, power, status and freedom. It is not therefore surprising that couples grapple with money issues so often.

 

So if you and your partner have recurrent arguements about finances, what can you do?

 

I will discuss this question in my next post.