Financial infidelity

Thirty-six per cent of Canadians lied about a money matter to their partners: poll

As Valentine’s Day approaches, a new survey suggests some Canadians planning to take their relationships to the next level may want to have a frank conversation about infidelity - financial infidelity, that is.

The online poll found 36 per cent of Canadians surveyed have lied about a financial matter to a romantic partner, and the same number of participants had been victims of financial infidelity from a current or former partner.

The Leger survey for Credit Canada and the Financial Planning Standards Council also found 34 per cent of those polled keep financial secrets from their current romantic partner.

“We wanted to understand what’s on the hearts and minds of Canadians at this time of the year, as it tends to be a time when people are talking about being in a relationship,” said Kelley Keehn, a personal finance educator and consumer advocate for the council, which helped create the survey.

“We’re hoping that the takeaway is if you are one of those Canadians who are struggling, you are suffering in silence, it’s affecting your marriage, maybe your health, that you’re reaching out to someone like a certified financial planner or a non-profit credit counsellor.”

Keehn said financial infidelity is generally defined as dishonesty in a relationship when it comes to money, but she noted that the term is vague and “it requires you (as a couple) to define what that means.”

“If you have separate accounts in your relationship and you both discussed openly that your money is your money and their money is their money, and you’re free to do anything that you want, then spending and saving and not telling the other person wouldn’t be an infidelity,” she said.

“But if both of you agree to be on the same page and share purchases over $100 and then you went behind the other person’s back, now that would qualify as a financial infidelity.”

The online survey polled 1,550 Canadians between Jan. 2 and Jan. 5. The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

The survey found participants aged 18 to 34 were more likely to be victims of financial infidelity - at 47 per cent - than those aged 65 and older, at 18 per cent.

The poll suggests, however, that gender and income level do not play a significant role.