A new survey from investment company AJ Bell commissioned through Opinium to understand the scale of secret spending among couples has revealed a worrying pattern. Among over 4,000 adults surveyed, over half of respondents confessed to spending money behind their partner’s backs. This is a troubling behavior that is harmful to the financial transparency and communication in your relationship.
Amongst the men who took part, on average, this amounts to a hidden £2,545 in spending over the last 12 months. This secret spending mostly consisted of clothing, which turned out to be the most frequently cited category for secret buys. Most strikingly, one in five men purchased clothing secretly, with women jumping to 35%.
Laura Suter, head of personal finance at investment platform AJ Bell, said the trend was alarming and pointed at longterm impacts of such reckless spending. Sometimes called sneaky money, secret spending is one of the fastest ways to financial discord in a marriage, she explained. Surveys stress that maintaining transparency with finances is key. A new hobby that requires a large, upfront purchase—and things that require regular maintenance, such as a dog—should be communicated about to safeguard your shared financial future.
Women were engaged in secret spending, averaging £1,769 in the last year. Of all adults surveyed, members of Gen Z topped the list with the most spending they failed to disclose. They averaged a mind boggling £4,303. This crop masked enormous arbitrary purchases that included how-to clothing and recreational pleasures like cigarettes and booze. Even more surprisingly, 19% of men confessed to spending on these purchases without their partners knowing it.
As it turns out, we found that people aged 55 years or older had hidden the most around an average of £384 of secret spending in that time. These statistics show a stark disparity in financial acumen, especially between ages and genders. This points to the importance of more honest financial communication within relationships.
Suter cautioned that concealed spending might be a sign of a greater inability to manage money between couples. She noted that these behaviors are making it difficult to budget. They limit much-needed long-term investments in key priorities like home ownership, emergency savings, or retirement savings.
These survey findings illustrate just how important transparency is. Specifically when it comes to funding. They expose the harmful effects that stem from one partner’s concealment of spending from the other.