FINANCES How much do we make? Husbands, wives disagree

A researcher found with regularity that husbands credit the family with more money and wives report more debt.
By H.J. CUMMINS
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL STAR TRIBUNE
Attention, husbands and wives: Maybe you'd stop fighting about how much money you can spend if you just agreed on how much money you make.
Guys, you tend to estimate your family income 10 percent higher and your family wealth -- home equity, stocks and bonds, and such -- 30 percent higher than does the woman you're married to.
Project
That's according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics research project that tracked about 1,200 couples, some since the 1960s. The report appeared in the May issue of the Journal of Socio-Economics.
It's not that women are clueless, research author Jay Zagorsky said. They pay the family bills in 60 percent of the households. It's also not a matter of getting acquainted: He found that the divide between a husband's and wife's view of their money situation stayed pretty consistent through the years.
But Zagorsky found with regularity that husbands credit the family with more money, wives report more debt, and each underestimates the other's paychecks -- at least compared with what the other told Zagorsky he or she earned.
Don't ask Zagorsky to explain it. He's an economist, not a psychologist, he said. But he does know one thing: People make their spending decisions based partly on how much money they think they have.
And with what he now knows about the differences in spouses' views on the family finances, "there's plenty of reason for conflict there."