4 Tips to Prevent Financial Infidelity in a Marriage

Tips to Prevent Financial Infidelity in a Marriage
Laurie Itkin

By Laurie Itkin | Apr 28th, 2019

We all know what sexual infidelity is. But what is financial infidelity in a marriage?

What Is Financial Infidelity?

When one spouse spends money, incurs debt, or makes decisions that negatively impact the financial security of the other spouse or their children without informing the other spouse, I consider that to be financial infidelity.

You and your spouse may not always agree on how to spend money and that’s normal. But if you do not acknowledge and discuss your differing opinions — even if an argument may result — that’s a recipe for trouble.

Can Financial Infidelity Be a Ground for Divorce?

Absolutely. Financial infidelity can be grounds for divorce, although small acts such as lying about the price of an item, hiding something they’ve purchased, or hiding a purchase price might not qualify unless they’re happening all the time. If credit card bills are far larger than you’ve been led to believe they are, if unpaid bills are being trashed or stashed away, or if they’re hiding a secret account from you, it’s possible that the behavior could be grounds for divorce.

If your spouse is spending money extravagantly without your knowledge, hiding large amounts of money from you, or harming your credit rating by allowing bills to go unpaid – particularly while leading you to believe that payments are being made, you’re a victim of financial infidelity that could be a ground for divorce.

Financial Infidelity & Divorce Court

Because financial infidelity often goes on for years before the truth is revealed, it can lead to serious complications in divorce court. Often, both parties are in deep financial distress and if fraud was part of the picture, then one or both might find themselves in legal hot water as well. The more tangled the web, the more complicated the case. 

If you are a victim of financial infidelity, it’s very important to seek assistance from a lawyer who can help unravel the knots, present your case to the judge, and minimize the damage to your finances going forward. It’s vital that the court understands exactly what took place so that your soon-to-be ex can be held responsible, and so that just and equitable division of marital property – and marital debt – can occur.

Are You a Victim of Financial Infidelity? Two Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. Are you Aware of How Much Debt You Both Carry?

I was meeting with a couple as they prepared their financial disclosures, which is one of the first steps in divorce mediation. The couple had been separated for over four years and had been married for 30. The husband was already living with another woman and, unfortunately, the wife was still 100% financially dependent on him because health problems impaired her ability to work. To save money she had been living with a friend free of charge as they did not own a home.

Everything was polite and civil as we discussed the retirement accounts and how they might be divided. Then we started looking at each credit card. After the wife gave me the account numbers and balances for all four credit cards she used, the husband gave me a list of 13 credit cards. When I added up the balances on all the cards, the total came to $113,000. And that was in addition to the nearly $200,000 they owed on loans which paid for their two daughters’ college tuition.

The wife became very angry. She had no idea the husband had racked up all this debt. She complained to me that he had ruined her credit score and demanded that he pay her back for any credit card charges that had been used to benefit his girlfriend.

I was thinking to myself that whatever he spent on the girlfriend was nothing in comparison to what he had paid in interest and late fees every month on all those credit cards. The balances would have grown every month even if he hadn’t put new charges on the cards.

Although I didn’t raise this issue, there was no doubt in my mind that he had incurred most of this debt well before he and his wife separated. How is it possible that she wasn’t aware of this? Was financial infidelity at play? Did the husband keep this information from her? Or had she never considered that maybe they were living above their means?

2. Are You Aware of Your Spouse’s Investment Gains or Losses?

It’s a “thing” these days. I see husbands losing their jobs and instead of finding a new one turning to day or swing trading to replace the income. The trading could be of stocks, options, futures or leveraged ETFs.

Don’t get me wrong. I love investing and I don’t understand why more women don’t do it. In my Amazon best-selling book, Every Woman Should Know Her Options: Invest Your Way to Financial Empowerment, I share my story of how I started investing in the stock market at age 24 with a $1,600 inheritance and built a million dollar stock and stock-fund portfolio by the time I turned 40.

When used conservatively, options are a great way to generate income in a portfolio (which I teach in my book). But when used speculatively – in the hopes of making significant gains in a short amount of time – they can be a recipe for disaster. Leveraged ETFs can be just as dangerous.

After her divorce was final, a woman came to me with help making a decision. She and her ex-husband had sold their house. Based on her income (she had just received a raise from $15 to $18 per hour), there was little chance she would qualify for a mortgage.

With her share of the marital home proceeds, she could pay cash and buy a small condo in a not-so-desirable community to live (snugly) with her and her children, or she could continue to rent. If she bought, she would wipe out her savings and would not be able to supplement her modest income. If she were to rent, she would have cash to invest which could generate monthly income for her. But based on the little she knew about her ex-husband’s trading, she was terrified to invest even one penny.

I reviewed the last tax return she had filed jointly with her ex-husband. I noticed right on the first page of the return that withdrawals had been made from an individual retirement account (IRA). Since both she and her ex-husband were under 59 and a half, that meant that in addition to paying federal and state income tax, they had to pay a 10% early withdrawal penalty. I calculated that at least 35% of the money taken out must have gone to the government leaving at most only 65% in their pocket. This also reduced the amount of retirement funds that were available for her future needs.

Early withdrawals from an IRA signal an urgent need for cash. Was he hiding this from her or did she never think to ask to see the tax return before she signed it? And even if she saw it, would she have understood what it meant?

I then looked at the section of the tax return regarding capital gains and losses. Believe it or not, the husband had racked up nearly $600,000 in capital losses. I have no doubt that this man, in order to earn income to replace his salary, had engaged in speculative trading practices…the antithesis of what I teach in my book. It’s pretty hard to lose $600,000 in just one year so I suspect his trading losses had accrued over several years.

How to Prevent Financial Infidelity

I can’t go back in time and make either woman’s situation better. But I can encourage readers of this article to take steps to prevent financial infidelity from getting out of control.

Sometimes spouses lie to one another about money. You can’t always stop them from lying but you can make it more difficult for them to do so. Many spouses won’t volunteer information – often due to fear or shame – and some might consider an omission of information to be financial infidelity. That is why establishing consistent and frequent transparency and communication is so important in a marriage. As we found from the Financial Fresh Start Study I co-authored with Worthy and the Association of Divorce Financial Planners (ADFP), too many wives still abdicate financial control to their husbands which often results in financial surprises during divorce.

In some marriages, one spouse is responsible for day-to-day household finances and the other spouse is responsible for the overall financial picture, like tax returns and investments. Spouses who pay most of the bills may think they have a good handle on the overall marital finances, but they often don’t.

Here are four tips to prevent financial infidelity:

How to Recover From Financial Infidelity

The first step toward recovering from financial infidelity is to understand why it happened. Perhaps one spouse is overly controlling, leading the other to feel the need to hide financial details. Perhaps there’s an underlying addiction. Knowing whether you and/or your behavior contributed to the financial infidelity – and if so, how you contributed – can help keep you from making a similar mistake in the future. Here are some additional tips for recovering from financial infidelity:

Laurie Itkin

Laurie Itkin


Laurie Itkin is a financial advisor, certified divorce financial analyst (CDFA), and author of the Amazon best-seller, Every Woman Should Know Her Options.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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