Why couples don’t talk enough about money

Maria had her first baby five months ago, and her boyfriend is looking after it right now. She doesn’t want to read her last name in the newspaper, but she tells us about herself: she’ll probably stay at home longer with the child, she might never fully return to her old job and instead restores old furniture. It would be financially possible, her boyfriend doesn’t earn badly. She doesn’t know exactly how he invests the money. But she’s sure he’s doing fine. After all, she doesn’t know anyone better than him, they’ve been together for more than ten years.

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If you talk to financial experts, they tell you about young couples in similar situations. One advisor says: “I keep hearing about couples who want to buy a house without even knowing how much the other person owns.” It is an observation that his colleagues confirm: Germans talk a lot to their partners little about money. In a Parship survey from last summer, 34 percent answered: “Even in a stable relationship, I don’t reveal how much I earn.” This leads to all sorts of chaos in our own four walls, but above all it drives women into destitute – no matter how emancipated they feel and how considerate their partner is. “There is a large group of women who are affected by poverty in old age and don’t know it,” says financial advisor Helma Sick.

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