When a not-for-profit called Thrivent Financial contacted us in 2017 about doing research to help couples in their marriage around money, we admit to some trepidation. As social researchers, we had uncovered many crucial life-changing truths and applied them to our own marriage – but money was the last big area where we were not on the same page. Yet given how much money impacts the health of relationships (and it doesn’t matter if you have a lot of it or barely any), we knew we had to take a deep breath and tackle this topic.

Three years and thousands of interviews and surveys later, we are so glad we did. It has been life-changing for us – and we hope it will be for you. Whether you are in a season of “for richer or poorer,” whether your relationship is doing great or things are tough, you will see how game-changing it is –how much strength and intimacy it brings –when you learn to do money together well.

As social researchers, we don’t know what we don’t know until we begin to ask questions. For this research, we began asking lots of questions with multiple focus groups and individuals about how they handled money, what they thought about how their partners handled money and heard many stories. Through those interviews, we began to identify a number of patterns that were then tested in our surveys.

The surveys for this research were designed with the guidance of Chuck Cowan of Analytic Focus, the former chief of survey design at the U.S. Census Bureau. Due to the complexities of money, a total of four surveys were conducted and data analyzed to identify the insights documented in Thriving in Love and Money: 5 Game-Changing Insights about Your Relationship, Your Money, and Yourself

The surveys were conducted by Decision Analyst, Dynata, and SSI.