Shelly K. Schwartz

CNBC

If you’re looking to show your spouse how much you care this Valentine’s Day, bag the gift or night out and get your credit cards paid off instead. It may lose points for romance, but the gesture is guaranteed to yield dividends in the long-term stability of your relationship, says Jeffrey Dew, a faculty fellow at the National Marriage Project and assistant professor of Family, Consumer and Human Development at Utah State University.

“Positive financial behavior can enrich a marriage,” says Dew. “When couples set goals together and they both contribute towards that goal, including financial ones, it strengthens the marital bond.” Indeed, the negative effects of poor money management have been widely established as one of the leading causes of divorce.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/35181405