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Looking to Strengthen a Relationship? A Joint Bank Account Might be the Solution: Study

Couple laying on a couch together
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They say there’s no “I” in “team,” and a romantic relationship is one of the most important teams you will join in life — but does that sense of teamwork apply to your finances, too? According to research, pooling your finances and sharing a bank account may help people have happier relationships in the long term.

According to a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, couples who willingly combined their coin showed evidence of stronger, more clear communication than those who didn’t.

Related: What is ‘greedy marrige’? Why married couples may ditch friends and family.

What those with a shared bank account did differently

Two hands working on paper finances
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How does sharing your bank account impact your relationship? The study — which looked at six studies, including both primary and secondary data — suggests that once couples share a bank account, couples no longer had to think of just themselves, but of each other. One indicator of this was word choice used: the use of personal plural pronouns (such as “we”, “us”, “our”) amongst partners indicated increased levels of dependence on one another and greater alignment.

Diving deeper into the world of love, researchers studied survey data from groups in the US, UK and Japan to see if cultural differences play a role in relationship finances. The results of this showed higher levels of satisfaction when couples shared funds amongst the two Western nations — which tend to have more individualistic cultures.

See more: Looking for long-term love? Avoid those friends-with-benefits hookups: research.

While this may be due to many factors, the study suggests that there cultural differences could have an impact. Specifically, they suggest that in a society where having shared goals is more commonly a major contributor in one’s life, sharing finances doesn’t have much of a change in those relationships (because they likely do it already); however, in more individualistic cultures, where one typically only worries for themselves, sharing finances opens a whole new world of communication between partners.

When a relationship gets hard, we may head to therapy or friends for advice, but sometimes if you find yourself in a selfish relationship, it may be time to head to the bank.

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