Do you think debt is a relationship deal breaker?
What would you do in this situation? You’ve been seeing someone for quite some time, you’re madly in love (or perhaps you just really like them), and one day you find out that they have an enormous amount of debt.
Would you call it quits or would you try to work it out?
As talked about in the article Why Is Talking About Money More Taboo Than Sex?, people don’t like to talk about money. In fact, according to a study completed by University College London, people are seven times more likely to talk to a stranger about sex, affairs, and sexually transmitted diseases than their salary.
This made me wonder: Would people really rather talk about anything else, such as STDs, instead of their debt?
I decided to do some research.
And, according to a survey completed by the personal finance company SoFi, people are more likely to admit that they have an STD rather than disclosing the amount of debt they have.
Yep, it’s true!
So, does this mean that debt is a relationship deal breaker?
According to a study completed by CreditCards.com, 48% of males and 57% of females say that debt is a turnoff. And, 54% of males and 70% of females would break up with a partner over secret credit card debt.
According to the same SoFi study mentioned above, approximately 55% of respondents said they wouldn’t dump someone over their debt. However, 39% said that they would dump their partner if they had too much debt.
One shocking finding from this study is that nearly 58% of respondents claimed that they would NOT actually tell their partner about debt until AFTER they were sharing household expenses.
For me, that would lead to even more problems than if debt was just something we talked about early on in the relationship.
Related content:
The average person has a lot of debt – in fact, the average U.S. household has over $10,000 in credit card debt alone. Between high mortgages, disastrous credit card bills, student loans, car payments, all the way to loans for furniture and electronics, there is just too much debt.
However, some people have much more debt than others.
From the statistics I’ve shown, it seems like for many, debt can be a relationship deal breaker. So, at what point do you tell the person you’re dating that you have debt? And, at what point is there just too much debt for a relationship to handle?
Today’s article is a short one because I want to hear from you and see what all of you think.
Let’s start a discussion in the comments. Would you start a relationship with someone knowing they had a lot of debt? On the flip side, what if you found out that someone you were already married or committed to had a lot of debt?
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