How Dare They!?!

[Jenifer Madson]

A commercial for the Chrysler Town & Country mini-van tells the story of a woman who goes on a shopping spree, and hides all her purchases in the ever-present cargo holds in the van, because she can't admit to her husband what she's shopped for.

My initial reaction to the ad was one of pure indignance; I wondered how they dared to label women that way. When I thought more about it, what frustrated me more was that this was only one example of financial infidelity—the practice itself is still so prevalent that it easily makes for this kind of advertising fodder.

And women aren't the only ones guilty of this lack of communication. Men tell me all the time about the conversations they feel they can't have with their partners about money. Yet without financial intimacy to go with the other levels of connection you share, are you truly having the partnership you want?

Take A Minute:
Is there something financially that you’re not sharing with your partner?

Make A Minute:
Choose a financial subject that you want to get out in the open. Make a date with your partner to start a discussion on the subject, the outcome being to collaboratively find solutions to whatever is challenging you in this area.

Financial fidelity, or the ability to communicate on the financial aspects of each other’s lives, leads you to financial intimacy, which is having such close association with the subject of money that it magnificently supports who you are and what you love. And what could be better than that?