Earlier this year, we teamed up with the Debt Free Guys to release the first part of our 2018 LGBTQ Love and Money Survey.
In the survey, we asked 300 LGBTQ couples about working together on finances, their biggest challenges, and their top goals. The results are fascinating, and you can see them below, along with an infographic.
One consistent theme from the results was that LGBTQ couples are having trouble saving enough and want to save more.
-We asked about their biggest financial problems. The top answers were:
#1 Lack of savings, not saving enough, 52%
#2 Bills/cost of living, 50%
#3 Income/job, 33%
#4 Healthcare costs, medical bills, illness, 30%
#5 Not saving enough for retirement, 30%
#6 Debt (besides student debt), 29%
#7 Student debt, 29%
#8 Bad credit, 16%
-Many LGTBQ couples don’t have enough saved for an emergency. In fact, 44% of the LGBTQ couples we surveyed have less than $1,000 saved for an emergency. More specifically, 19% of respondents have virtually nothing saved for an emergency, 25% have saved $1 — $999, 28% have saved $1,000 — $4,999, and 28% have saved $5,000 or more.
-We asked about their biggest financial goals in the next 3–5 years. Here are the top answers:
#1 Building up an emergency fund, 46%
#2 Saving for something fun (e.g., a vacation), 42%
#3 Paying down debt (other than student debt), 40%
#4 Buying a home, 36%
#5 Saving for retirement, 36%
#6 Improving credit score, 30%
#7 Paying down student debt, 23%
#8 Saving for a baby, 16%
The rest of the results were also interesting:
-LGBTQ couples worry about money quite a bit. 82% of the LGBTQ couples we surveyed worry about money at least once a month. 58% worry about money at least once a week, and 29% worry about money every day.
-LGBTQ couples with bad credit fight and worry about money more than couples with any other problems. 55% of couples with bad credit reported fighting daily, weekly, or monthly. On top of that, 51% of the respondents with bad credit worry about money daily, 86% worry weekly, and 100% worry monthly.
-Facing so many challenges, many LGBTQ couples don’t feel financially secure. 10% of respondents feel very financially secure, 48% feel somewhat financially secure, 30% feel not very financially secure, and 12% feel not at all financially secure.
-We asked what financial tools and resources they use. 35% don’t use any tools/resources to manage their finances, 34% use a spreadsheet, 20% use credit monitoring software, 15% use budgeting software, and 14% use blogs, articles, podcasts, and/or books on personal finances.
-We asked where couples do their discretionary spending. Here are the top answers:
#1 Dining out, 54%
#2 Personal care items, 33%
#3 Entertainment, 33%
#4 Children’s items, 29%
#5 Travel/vacation, 28%
#6 Clothing, 25%
-There’s a better way. Honeyfi is a free app to help couples simplify their finances and spend mindfully together. Honeyfi makes budgeting easy by automatically suggesting a shared budget based on your previous spending. You can edit your budget, create custom budget categories, and quickly compare your actual spending to your budgeted spending for each category. We built Honeyfi for all couples. So you’ll always have full control over how much you share with your partner.
To get in sync with your partner about money today, check out Honeyfi in the App Store and the Google Play Store.
Originally published at honeyfi.
