Psychotherapist Joyce Marter has counseled patients in relationships where money represents power and control. If one person is financially literate and the other is not, then the one who is more comfortable making financial decisions tends to take over the budgeting and expenditures, she says, using it as a wedge to tamp down their spouse. “It’s far more common than people probably imagine,” notes Marter. Women, in particular, get cultural messages from an early age that they’re not good at math and, as a result, recoil from financial discussions. One of Marter’s clients, a master’s degree-educated woman, had stepped back from a successful professional career to raise children. The husband came from a wealthy family and earned a huge salary.
