Personal Finance News Friday 6/8

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

How Couples Sabotage Their Finances
By Chris Taylor | Reuters – Thu, Jun 7, 2012 2:28 PM EDT

With a wedding coming up, you'd think Jay Buerck would be obsessing about the usual details: Writing vows, choosing appetizers, or figuring out seating charts to accommodate challenging relatives.

But what worries the 29-year-old St. Louis marketing professional isn't any of those things: It's money.

Not that he and his bride-to-be Liz Downey won't have enough; they earn comfortable salaries. What really freaks him out is the inherent challenge of joining two people's finances.

"Money is the reason why many people get divorced," says Buerck. "I have a buddy who got married and didn't tell his wife about the extent of his debt, and they had a rough go of it when he came clean. That's something I want to try and avoid."

[Related: Marriage Problems that Are Actually Good for Your Relationship]

The couple has already taken steps to prepare their finances. That's a smart strategy, according to financial experts, especially now that U.S. couples are waiting longer to marry, and many people have thousands of dollars in student loans and credit card debt by the time they take their vows.

Money causes more arguments than other typical flashpoints, according to a recent survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Harris Interactive.

A full 27 percent of respondents said their spats started over money, more than problems with kids (16 percent) or chores (13 percent).

Couples who lock horns over finances at least once a week are 30 percent more likely to get divorced, according to a 2009 study by researchers at Utah State University,

"I probably spend 15 percent of my time with couples actually talking about money, and the other 85 percent talking about personal issues," says Chris Kimball, a certified financial planner in Lakewood, Washington, who also has a Masters of Divinity degree.

"It all ties into money. It's a very powerful thing that can do great things in people's lives, or can really mess them up."

Shockingly, nearly one-half of all people have lied to their significant other about money, according to an April poll by Self Magazine and Today.com. (For a graphic representation of our financial State of the Union, click (link.reuters.com/zyw58s)

And a survey conducted this spring by CreditCards.com revealed that 6 million Americans have hidden financial accounts from their spouses or live-in partners.

The deception isn't usually malicious. Often it's prompted by guilt and embarrassment about spending. Compounding the problem is that financial behavior is very deeply set, and can't be altered easily.

So where do couples go wrong, when it comes to money -- and how can they make it right?

To read the entire article:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-couples-sabotage-their-finances.html

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