Fiscal Attraction - Spenders and Savers Live in Wedded Bliss

by Annie Scott (RSS feed)
Aug 3rd 2009 at 9:01PM

The Wharton School of Finance and Northwestern University are currently collaborating on a paper called "Fatal (Fiscal) Attraction," concerning the spending habits of husband and wives.

According to the authors, Scott Rick, Deborah Small and Eli Finkel, "Surveys of married adults suggest that opposites attract when it comes to emotional reactions toward spending."

Rick also worked on a separate study with Carnegie Mellon's George Loewenstein and Cynthia Cryder about "tightwads" and "spendthrifts" (which I always thought those were synonyms. Oops), and the "pain of paying." The study "found that the extent to which people said they found a pain of paying strongly predicted their savings and credit card debt, but were unrelated to income," reports Kristina Cooke, Reuters.

Whie you might think that there would be less drama if you and your mate had similar spending habits, it turns out that if you dislike spending, you might have sought out someone who likes it, and vice versa.

Basically, next time your husband or wife asks "Why are you spending so much?" in exasperation, you can truthfully answer: "That's why you love me, baby."

[via Reuters]

Tags: marriage, money, spending habits