Cheating and Money

There was an article in the NY Times Sunday entitled, "By Her Support Does She Earn His Infidelity?''

It was about a paper written by Cornell professor Christian L. Munsch entitled, "The Effect of Relative Income Disparity on Infidelity for Men and Women..''

It says that Stay at Home Dads or the Laid Off Dad are five times more likely to cheat than men who contribute an equal amount of money to the relationship. And that men who earn significantly more than their wives are likely to cheat.

Women who earn 75 per cent of the man's income are more likely to have a faithful husband.
Most women tend to be in that category because, fair or not, men tend to get paid more than women for the same job.

The paper says that, "Having multiple sex partners may be an attempt to compensatse for feelings of inadequacy.''

The professor said that only 3.8 per cent of men and 1.4 per cent of women admit to cheating, which is in line of the national average that 3 to 4 per cent of married spouses cheat in any given year. So the overwhelming majority of spouses don't cheat.

Anyway, I am curious if you think it is a problem if a wife makes more than the husband? And I am somewhat skeptical of the theory that money has much to do with cheating.

But I thought it was an interesting topic so I thought I'd pass it along for your thoughts.

FD

How Much Does Money Matter?

A recent story by columnist Michelle Singletary says that couples who argue about money once a week are 30 per cent more likely to get a divorce than couples who argue about money a few times a month.

This came from a study by Jeffrey Dew, a professor of family studies at Utah State University.

The columnist also recommends reading the "State of Our Unions'' report at www.virginia.edu/marriageproject.

She says that if you find a way to deal with financial issues that are keeping you apart, you'll have deeper intimacy -- emotionally and physically. And she says couples should have serious discussions about money before they get married.

I thought it would be interesting to get feedback from our readers on this issue. Is money an issue in your marriage? Do you fight about it much? Or are you on the same page on money issues?

Your thoughts?

FD