Relationships are not just about love, care, and affection but also about communication, understanding, and encouragement.
While, along with personal compatibility, financial compatibility is also very essential to the overall success and longevity of your relationship.
So, how can you find out whether your partner is financially compatible? There are a few financial red flags that all partners should be aware of, as they usually bring trouble into relationships.
Financial Red Flags: 5 Signs you should not ignore
1. Uneven Spends:
It is very important to make sure that all the bills are split or paid by one or the other with a mature as well as mutual understanding.
It’s a red flag if your partner or you repeatedly end up paying bills (if both parties are earning & have the similar paychecks). Unwillingness to split money for expenses is also a red flag.
It is very important to maintain a balance between who pays the bill. While it might be a way for you to express your financial independence, it should not become a burden on you.
If any of the partners is a homemaker then also spending should be done with mutual understanding and communication.
2. Secretive money matters:
Your partner might have expenses you are not aware of or never planned about. And someday you might come across credit card bills for such expenses that never seemed to exist. So, such actions might damage the trust and bond between the two in a relationship.
Such spending can burden the person and the relationship you have and hence it is important to see this as a red flag and help your partner understand its effects and change this habit.
3. Denial to discuss:
When you confront them, they make excuses or lie about the financial matter. Either it is a secret spend, them controlling your bank account, or an unpaid credit card bill.
These tendencies are out-and-out red flags. Understanding their side of the story might help.
If you still find loopholes, then the matter’s already escalated. When you discover the alarming money habits of your partner, your intuition alarm goes off because you have neither heard about them nor known them through friends.
Even though you may be socially extremely compatible with your partner, this could become a thorn in your bed of roses. Look out for the signs, listen to your intuition, and confront the situation before the situation confounds you!
4. The blind follower:
Your partner might have a habit of being in the limelight by simply following the steps of people around him, which, for example, can lead him into investing in instruments that are beyond their risk potential or about which they have no knowledge about. Such behavior is not good for the future of an individual and their relationship.
Thus, it is very important to understand your needs and goals before understanding.
5. They hide their debt:
One might feel that sharing information about debts with your partner could pose a bad impression and hence they might hide these. However, a healthy relationship is when liabilities are also shared and not just assets. This builds a strong bond and helps you support each other as and when the time demands.
If you observe the above red flags, then communicate with your partner and try & work out the same, which will enable you to grow your relationship and save your finances and fulfill your goals together.
Learning, teaching, understanding, motivating, and communicating with each other about all the financial decisions and goals will build your relationship stronger.
“Money is an opportunity to reach unity in marriage. When couples work together, they can do anything.” –Dave Ramsey