Should we be asking for our partner’s credit score before we get into favorite movies and acceptable pizza toppings? It might not be the worst idea, according to Chris Everett, fiduciary financial planner and president of Everett Wealth Solutions.
Everett joined WBBM Newsradio’s Rob Hart this week on the Noon Business Hour to discuss the rise of “financial future faking” in dating. That’s when people lie about their financial situation or financial prospects, either just to their partners or to themselves too, about travelling, goals, deals and more.
“It’s not necessarily deception… sometimes people genuinely believe,” she said. “But if you’re listening to that and you’re trying to make life decisions, it’s emotional. You want to make practical decisions and, you know, good financial decisions. You need to know if the story that you're hearing is real or not. And you know what? This crosses every age group.”
According to a recent survey from dating app Hily, Gen Z and millennials are definitely concerned about financial fakers. Nearly one in five of the 2,100 people from those generations surveyed, said they think dating apps should have a credit score feature.
“There's nothing more romantic… than that dinner where it’s candlelight, music, a great glass of champagne, and then your partner asks for two pay stubs and last year’s tax returns,” Hart joked.
Still, Everett said it is important to be honest about finances right off the bat in relationships. She also said its important to have discernment when people paint a financial picture that sounds too good to be true.
“Instead of getting excited about someone saying, ‘Hey we’re going to have everything,” you start asking better questions,” Everett explained. “Not because you’re trying to be suspicious, but because you want to see if you’re in alignment, make sure it matters to you.”
In a world where Inflation and gas prices are stressing wallets and artificial intelligence is making people nervous about the job market, even people with financial realities they’re not proud of are better off being honest. Then, future partners will know what sort of financial project they’re getting into, paving the way for potential success in the future.
“So, the more real you can be, I think the better off it’ll be,” said Everett. “You know, it’s... look, financial compatibility is not just about how much money somebody has, it’s about their relationship to money too. How they think about it. What decisions are they making? Are they... dreaming big but they have no resources or are they perhaps resource poor but they believe in themselves and they have a plan to get there? I mean those are very different frameworks.”
