Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Spenders And Tightwads Among Newlyweds: Perceptions Of Partner Financial Behaviors And Relational Well-Being, Heather H. Kelley, Alexa B. Chandler, Ashley B. Lebaron-Black, Xiaomin Li, Melissa A. Curran, Jeremy B. Yorgason, Spencer James

Journal of Financial Therapy

Finances, and how couples manage their finances, can have important implications for couples’ relational well-being. Using data from 1,585 couples that participated in the CREATE study (a nationally representative dyadic dataset of U.S. newlywed couples), we examined how perceiving one’s spouse as a financial spender (i.e., spending more than they ideally would) or financial tightwad (i.e., spending less than they ideally would) was associated with several measures of relational well-being (i.e., satisfaction, commitment, and power) through actor-partner interdependence structural equation models. Results showed that perceiving one’s partner as a spender was detrimental for both the individual’s and the partner’s marital …