Couples And Finances: You Told Them What?!
“Money is more personal than sex,” said a young woman at a recent workshop. My reaction was; “Is it?” What could make money so important and personal?
I don’t know if she was trying to say that she was a modern liberated woman or something else. What struck me is that money, and the way it is handled can be a very private and personal thing in the lives of introverts.
Extroverts are often more open about money and be quite free about telling everyone about their financial interests. Introverts may well take this openness as a lack of discretion. They may well feel that when their partner talks about money to people outside of the family, that their own privacy is being sacrificed.
Long ago I knew of an old quite eccentric man who refused to tell anything about his financial dealings, even about a small matter. When someone asked what he paid for something, he would reply: “Money.” When asked how much, he would reply: “too much.”
He wasa little extreme, but introverts generally like to keep financial, as well as many other personal data, quite private. This can be an area of tension between an introverted and an extroverted partner, something they will have to recognize and deal with.