Cheating can take on many forms so do not think that it is only having an affair that can ruin your marriage.Financial infidelity does exist and this is characterized by having a secret bank account, lying about how you spend your money and hiding your exact salary from your spouse. You might think that you are just telling a white lie to your partner but, the consequences of these lies can end up to be very devastating to your marriage. Here is how these lies can destroy your marriage:

• Undermines trust. By lying about your finances, you make it hard for your spouse to trust you in whatever you say. It is not easy to start trusting somebody who is either lying to you all the time or withholding things from you. More so, the partner who is being lied to may also come to conclusions that you do not trust them. If you trust and love somebody, you always tell them everything no matter how bad or trivial the issue is. Hence, with this mistrust, it is difficult for you to be able to develop your relationship.
• Destroys your quality of life. If you are the cheating spouse and you went on a secret shopping spree more often than required using yours and your spouse’ credit card, it could take years for both of you to pay back the debt. You will be forcing your innocent partner to bear with a quality of life is not used to just because the two of you have to pay back a debt. He or she could actually end up hating you because for forcing them into this predicament. Now, if somebody hates you, how do you expect them to still want to be married to you?
• Financial infidelity downplays your efforts of achieving greater intimacy. Through sharing information about how you spend your money, one can be able to tell what kind of things interest you and thus, think along those lines to try and please you. Also, you can be able to know your spouse’s weaknesses so that you can help them like for example if they are big spenders, you can limit them on what to buy and what not to buy depending on important something is. However, when you withhold or lie about things, it is hard for your spouse to know these things and therefore, misunderstandings and disagreements can culminate in your marriage.
• Makes the partner lied to feel bad. It can make your spouse feel worthless or crush his or her feelings as they do not understand why lied to them. By being straightforward with your partner, you are showing that you love and trust them so acting contrary can portray the opposite. Your actions may also portray the fact that you do not respect your partner as you went out of your way to use the money that was meant to achieve your joint goals.
• Lies may signify other problems in the marriage. It could be that you have differing goals from your spouse that is why you used your money secretly as you are scared of hurting them or because you know that he or she will oppose your decisions. Some married partners never try to encourage their partners but, instead put them down all the time leading to this dishonesty. Lack of trust and faithfulness in a marriage can cause it to go down the drain.

Now that you know that financial infidelity is a marriage wrecker, do not try to justify those ‘small lies’ because it does not necessary take only a big lie to destroy a marriage. Moreover, a small lie can culminate to you telling bigger lies that you would not have even thought about telling if you did not lie at all in the first place.