Household financial decision making: Qualitative research with couples

13
Attitudes to financial decision making
2.2.2 
The process itself
Couples made it clear that discussions do almost always take place when they make significant 
financial decisions. Although there were isolated cases where one partner took charge of a particular 
type of financial decision independently, no couple described their typical decision-making process 
as involving one partner exclusively, without some kind of agreement.
‘We talk about it, like, “I’m going to buy a van”. It’s not just, “Surprise!”’
(Cara, 20s, North West)
 
‘We do discuss everything. Smaller things, I would tend to take the lead and I would run it by 
him and if he is fine with it then I will deal with it.’
(Jade, 20s, North East)
Most people defined a ‘significant’ financial decision as one that involved a substantial amount of 
money. Interpretations of ‘substantial’ varied according to couples’ level of wealth and income. A 
few offered alternative definitions of ‘significant’ in the context of financial decisions, for example, 
decisions that necessitated saving up money, or meant taking out a loan in order to pay for 
something.
Figure 2.1 below provides a visual representation of the typical form that discussions took as couples 
made a significant financial decision. 
Figure 2.1 Typical form of discussion during the decision-making process
Decision making was often instigated by a trigger, which caused one partner to identify the need 
to decide on a course of action. At this point, it was common for only one partner to have engaged 
seriously with the idea. 
‘Zara lost her Dad, and that was the point at which she said, “I’m going to have some money 
coming in, so maybe we could [buy a house] together.”’
(Niall, 30s, South East)
It was usual for couples to return to the issue under discussion several times before reaching a 
decision. With each discussion, momentum increased until both partners were engaged, and