Young Couples Are Splitting Over Finances, But There's Help On The Way To Keep It All Separate But Equal

It only takes a quick trip to the gas station or the grocery store for couples of any age or income level to know that inflation is changing how people budget, spend and save money. And based on recent data, that pressure also affects the way couples manage their money in a relationship. The news isn’t good. 

According to a Wealth of Geeks and Credit.com study, nearly a quarter of all couples break up over finances. It’s an even more significant issue for couples between the ages of 35 and 49 (30%), with 28% of those ages 25-34 ending relationships because of money conflicts. 

Whether it's couples waiting too long or hiding information from one another, many of these issues are solvable, according to the developer of a new app that brings finances into focus without entangling couples' bank accounts. 

“There’s nothing more interesting than the intersection of finance and romance because both bring unique perspectives, some realistic and some unrealistic,” entrepreneur and Smoov Founder Tucker Cohen said. 

Smoov is an app now in beta stage that connects to a couple’s various credit and bank cards and makes it easier for them to split and manage their shared experiences. Each partner is notified when they use one of their cards, asking whether it’s a joint spending experience or an individual one and aggregates transactions in a list easily accessed by the card owner and/or couple. 

The Credit.com survey found that younger couples are more likely to have only separate accounts, with 45% of younger millennials (ages 26 to 32) who are married, in a civil partnership or living with their partner not sharing any accounts at all compared to 20% of Gen Xers and 14% of baby boomers.

Cohen, a Massachusetts native who now resides in California, came up with the idea after launching a couple of previous entrepreneurial projects, including a direct-to-consumer organic hair wax that failed because the company was making the product itself and couldn’t scale it to demand. The new venture came when he and his Spanish girlfriend, now wife, were visiting her family in Madrid and got engaged. 

“We got back from that trip and said, let's figure out the financial damage. We spent all this time building a spreadsheet, trying to figure out statements and cross-referencing with Venmo. I thought, ‘There has to be an app for this, allowing us to split expenses,’” he said. 

When he found out there were none, he got a bunch of developers together and built his own. 

One of the unique aspects of Smoov is that users can select which expenses they want to split with their partner and then move them to a shared transaction list. “Everyone has their own relationship with finance,” Cohen said. “The whole process is loaded with emotion and awkwardness and the need for communication.”

Like most entrepreneurs, Cohen’s long-term goal for Smoov is an acquisition, but he plans to try to gain unicorn status in five years if he gets the right partnerships. Currently, the Smoov app is “in the sandbox for Apple apps,” but Cohen says he hopes it will be available to the general public for download by the end of the first quarter. 

As for advice on when couples should first address the financial question? Cohen didn’t hesitate and said, “On their first vacation!”

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