Sex, Lies & Money

LAST MONTH, AS THE CALENDAR INCHED CLOSER to February 14, the air became thick with the usual Valentine’s Day offerings—roses, boxed chocolates and a plethora of new polls warning couples that financial infidelity is rampant and likely to ruin your romantic relationship.

Consider just a sampling of some of these recent surveys. A poll earlier this month found that 44 percent of respondents were financially two-timing their partners by hiding a checking, savings or credit card account, secretly being in debt or spending money their loved ones wouldn’t approve of. Various surveys concluded that millennials are the worst offenders, when it comes to keeping money secrets, although the percentages varied widely: from 27 percent in a TD Bank poll to 57 percent in the survey. And no matter what their age, people agreed that lying to your partner about money is a serious risk to a relationship, with claiming it’s as bad as or worse than physical infidelity.