Christina Bauer

So with your research, are we actually talking about money or are we talking about what money means in your relationship between you and your partner?

Well, let's dig into the study.

My understanding is that the perception of how your spouse spends or saves is more important than your actual financial reality.

To me, that feels almost dangerous, right?

We can kind of be in a blissful idea of the other person and that could ignore the kind of reality of the facts in the marriage with money.

Or perhaps they spend a lot, but they always spend within their means.

And they're also very good at saving.

The other partner might get annoyed by that, but there's actually nothing wrong with it.

Wow, I'm loving this example.

I'm on the edge of my seat with this example.

When you did broaden it, when you did research it, did you find that it's really perception that can boost or I guess negatively affect relationship satisfaction, not the reality?

Now, for couples who end up talking more openly about money and spending and saving and all these things, financial planning, I guess, are they often more aligned in their perceptions?

Is talking about it an antidote to falling into this trap?

If you could give a couple listening one takeaway, maybe a couple where one has the spender hat and one has the saver hat.

I know these labels are sometimes not helpful.

What would it be?

And it might be cheaper than real wallpaper, which having just done my house is very expensive.

Well, Jamie Lynn Byram is a financial planner and lecturer at the University of Georgia.

Jamie Lynn, thanks for sharing your research with me.

Thanks for having me.