The secret to a happy marriage?
A new study has found that the secret to a long and happy marriage may not be love and romance... it may be separate bank accounts.
Research conducted by MoneyMagpie.com in the UK found that a quarter of married people in Britain blamed divorce-inducing quarrels on monetary issues.
Although the majority of couples still accepted that a joint bank account has the potential of building trust and openness, one in four claimed that joining their incomes - and especially savings - was likely to cause irreversible rifts that could end in break-up or divorce.
Founder and consumer affairs expert of MoneyMagpie.com Jasmine Birtles said the findings reflect positively on newlyweds who are taking proactive steps to reduce the risk of unnecessary conflict before it arises.
She said: ''The results of this research appear to suggest that more people than ever before are choosing to keep their finances separate after getting married or moving in together.
''For a considerable number of people, it seems, the decision to retain financial autonomy is not based upon money at all but rather upon on the long-term health of their relationship.''
Of the 2,005 adults polled, 34 per cent of married and living-as-married couples opted to keep their bank accounts separate.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, older couples who had been together for more than 30 years were by far the most likely to have a joint account - 80 per cent.
