Unexpected Habits That Can Sink a Marriage

You Buy His-and-Hers Hermes

You thought you found your soulmate when you met a man who knows Louboutins from Manolo Blahniks. And he was smitten when you noticed that his tie was from the new line at Armani. By all expectations, this was a marriage made in—well, if not heaven—Italy. Researchers at Brigham Young University know better. In a recent study, they found that couples that admit to loving money and “stuff” score 10 percent to 15 percent lower on marriage stability than couples that say money isn’t important to them. They bicker more about finances, even if they’re financially well off, and are less responsive to each other. A marriage between two materialists fares worse, in fact, than one with only a single shopaholic spouse.