(ORDO NEWS) — Maintaining a shared budget is a big step in any relationship. Couples who pool their money are less likely to break up, a new study says.
The common budget contributes to the convergence and drawing up of joint goals and plans
Researchers at Cornell University in New York, USA, found that couples with pooled finances had stronger relationships, and their communication was more positive and stable. Interestingly, this led to them using a common language to describe their relationship.
Many used pronouns such as “we”, “us”, and “our” and fewer pronouns such as “I”. “We expected pooled finances to increase a person’s level of dependence on their partner, as well as align the couple’s (financial) interests and goals, which interdependence theory tells us is associated with a high level of relationship quality,” the authors write.
The experts also found that couples with pooled financial accounts used more association words such as agree, communicate, friend, kindness, listen, and peace.
In addition, the authors analyzed survey data from population samples in the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. Their results showed a stronger relationship between financial pooling and relationship satisfaction in the US and UK compared to Japan.
“We suspect that the difference in strength is due to the fact that the US and UK are individualistic cultures, while Japan is a collectivist culture,” the scientists comment. “Individualist cultures tend to focus on self-reliance and the personal ‘I’, while collectivist cultures focus on group membership and the ‘we’ identity.”
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