Financial Adultery
by Ron Doerksen

Adultery is a fairly hot topic. My wife manages online magazines for ladies and a recent article about this topic has been attracting a lot of attention. Google AdWords says that the word adultery has a global monthly search figure of 450,000. The word cheating comes in at a whopping 37,200,000. So what does this mean and what does it have to do with sensible money management? I am glad you asked!

Adultery usually occurs when a spouse has a private life going on outside his or her marriage. It might start out innocently enough but then this private life grows and then grows some more. There is a trend towards a lack of accountability relating to where time is spent and with whom. Eventually the inevitable happens. Usually this leads to divorce which can be messy, costly and very destructive for all concerned. But what about financial adultery?

Something very similar happens here. A private spending life can occur when there is a lack of transparency in money matters between spouses. It might start off very innocently with small sums of money. Purchases are made that don’t get mentioned. This private life can continue to grow. Eventually one might even procure credit cards that pass under the radar of one’s spouse. At some point this can all spin out of control and come out in a most embarrassing manner. Here as well, divorce can be right around the corner.

Some of the common factors in both cases are a lack of accountability and and a lack of transparency. It is a measure of one’s moral character to resist the temptation of starting down these slippery slopes. Financial adultery can come at a very high cost both in terms of one’s marriage and of course in terms of one’s financial stability.

It just makes sense to commit to financial integrity in one’s marriage. Many couples make it a point to regularly go over the finances together. They also decide ahead of time not to do anything that will compromise financial transparency. What others have done you can do too.

KA-CHING! – that will be 2 cents please!

“Used with permission of the financial blog RonCents.com Making Cents Out Of Managing Money, SustainableFinances@comcast.net. Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved. RonCents.com is run by Ron Doerksen, an independent insurance broker and owner of Sustainable Finances. Before getting into life and health insurance Ron served for 22 years on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ International. For most of that time he was assigned to work in the country of France.”

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