Toolkit to improve financial conversations between partners

We’ve  partnered with the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) to develop a toolkit to help you have successful and effective conversations about money with your partner.  

Money can be a fraught topic for intimate partners where finances are largely considered a taboo topic.  

The money taboo prevents open discussions of personal finances, including household financial matters.  

This can often lead to conflict, stress, missed financial opportunities, lower retirement outcomes and poorer financial decision-making. 

Social Inclusion Manager, Nicola Eccleton said:

“Unhealthy financial relationships can also be the beginning of behaviour that leads to economic harm, a serious form of family violence that is of real concern to us.” 

New Zealand leads the OECD for rates of family or intimate partner violence (IPV), with one in two New Zealand women experiencing physical, sexual and/or psychological violence over their lifetime. Money is often ‘weaponised’ in IPV cases and used to entrap an intimate partner.  

Our toolkit aims to tackle this by making conversations about money a more comfortable subject between partners, while ultimately shifting our awareness and understanding of economic harm. 

Dr Ayesha Scott from AUT who worked with us to develop the toolkit said: 

“Kiwis don’t talk about money. Our project addresses this important, yet under-explored gap in current social, health and finance research. 

“It recognises the complexity of the problem, and places finance into the ongoing intimate partner violence dialogue in New Zealand alongside health, social, law and justice. We aim to overcome the money taboo and ongoing inequality in our community, starting with New Zealanders’ closest relationships.” 

The toolkit will feature checklists, quizzes and real-life examples that you will be able to use yourself and with your partner to improve your conversations about money.