FINANCIAL INFIDELITY LIMITS HOUSEHOLDS’ WEALTH CREATION

By Nelson Nyoro

This would be a rather controversial discussion.  I have avoided controversy for a long time. However, it will not be morally right for me to play safe anymore when mankind is screaming for offensive games. To create a change in behaviour, you have to adopt an offensive strategy. I would therefore wish to pose the following questions.  Do you believe that your significant other is totally honest with you when it comes to money?  Do you feel like an open book when it comes to money?

Financial Infidelity:

Cheating on your spouse (infidelity) is one way through which marriages get destroyed.  Can there be financial infidelity? Keeping financial secrets from your spouse or significant other has a name. This behaviour is called financial infidelity.  Though it doesn’t get as much press coverage as adultery, it’s just as dangerous to otherwise healthy marriages.

Financial infidelity may be further defined as a form of financial cheating that one partner commits with his or her current partner.  It includes hiding purchases from spouses, having secret credit cards, or keeping secret personal bank accounts. According to Canale, and Klontz (2015):  “Financial infidelity includes any purposeful financial deceit between two or more individuals wherein, there is a stated or unstated belief in mutual honest communication around financial matters”. Oftentimes, financial infidelities are subtle, and the offending individual does not realize he or she is doing anything wrong. Commonly, the victims are caught when they have reached a credit card limit, received a bad credit score, or missed a loan payment and they are  listed with the credit reference bureaus or failed to