Money is increasingly becoming a relationship issue as much as a budgeting issue. A new TD Bank U.S. survey of 2,000 adults found that financial anxiety is driving secrecy between partners, influencing dating decisions and delaying major milestones such as homeownership, travel and retirement saving.

Financial technology has made it easier than ever to track spending, transfer money and manage household finances. Yet a new survey from TD Bank U.S. suggests that technology has not solved one of the oldest problems in personal finance: talking honestly about money.

The bank’s 2026 Love & Money Survey, conducted by Talker Research, found that 59% of respondents have felt at least occasionally scared or embarrassed to openly discuss their finances with a partner. Another 68% said they sometimes feel pressure to appear more financially successful than they actually are.

The findings point to a broader shift in the role of financial technology. Personal-finance apps, digital banking platforms and automated budgeting tools can provide increasingly detailed information about an individual’s finances. But the hardest financial decisions often remain interpersonal: whether to disclose debt, combine accounts, buy a home, support relatives or postpone a major life event.

For fintech companies, that creates an opportunity that extends beyond transaction processing. The next generation of financial wellness products may need to help people communicate about money, not simply manage it.

Financial secrecy remains surprisingly common

The TD survey found that 30% of respondents had hidden a purchase or financial decision from a spouse, partner or family member.

Some respondents reported concealing more consequential information. Twenty-one percent said they had hidden a bad credit score, while 16% had concealed credit-card debt. Fourteen percent reported hiding gambling habits and 11% said they had concealed a bank account.

The problem appears particularly relevant for households supporting children. Only 39% of respondents with children under 18 reported complete financial transparency, compared with 53% among people without financial dependents.

That gap illustrates why financial-management software increasingly has to account for households rather than individual users.

Traditional personal-finance applications were largely designed around a single account holder. But modern financial lives can involve shared bills, separate accounts, joint credit, family transfers, childcare costs and financial support flowing between generations.

Products that can provide shared visibility while preserving appropriate privacy could become more valuable as these arrangements become more complicated.

Financial compatibility is becoming a relationship consideration

Money is also influencing who people choose as long-term partners.

TD found that 72% of respondents consider financial stability important when pursuing a serious relationship, including 41% who consider it very important that a partner be financially stable and able to help support a household if necessary.

Debt is also becoming a potential relationship filter. Forty-six percent said another person’s debt or financial habits would influence whether they pursued a serious relationship.

The generational divide is notable. Fifty-one percent of Millennials and 49% of Gen Z respondents said financial habits or debt would influence that decision, compared with 39% of both Gen X and Baby Boomers.

The result is consistent with a wider pattern in consumer finance: younger adults are navigating relationships at a time when housing, education, transportation and other major expenses can require substantial financial resources.

Recent research from other organizations points in a similar direction. A 2026 survey commissioned by Current found that younger Americans were substantially more likely than older generations to say finances affected their ability to find a partner.

The milestones being postponed

Perhaps the clearest indication of financial pressure is what people are choosing not to do.

Three-quarters of TD’s respondents said they had delayed at least one major life milestone because of their financial situation.

The most frequently postponed goals were:

• Paying off debt: 23%
• Travel: 21%
• Buying a car: 17%
• Buying a home: 17%
• Saving for retirement: 15%

The generational differences are particularly striking. Eighty-five percent of Gen Z respondents said they had delayed at least one major milestone, compared with 79% of Millennials, 66% of Gen X and 57% of Baby Boomers.

For financial-services companies, these numbers matter because postponed milestones can change customer behavior across multiple product categories.

A consumer delaying homeownership may remain a renter longer, postpone mortgage borrowing and accumulate savings differently. Someone delaying retirement contributions may require different wealth-management products later. A household delaying debt repayment may become a longer-term customer for credit-management services.

Financial stress therefore has consequences for the entire financial-services lifecycle.

Family becomes part of the financial infrastructure

When individual income is insufficient, many Americans are turning to their personal networks.

Two-thirds of respondents, or 67%, said they had received financial assistance from family members or someone close to them. The most common forms were help with everyday expenses and bills, emergency support, and assistance with credit-card or debt payments, rent or mortgage payments and vehicle purchases.

Younger adults were significantly more likely to report receiving assistance. Seventy-seven percent of Gen Z respondents and 71% of Millennials said they had received financial support, compared with 60% of Gen X and 45% of Baby Boomers.

Support is not flowing in only one direction. Seventy-one percent said they had also provided financial assistance to family members or someone close to them.

That creates an important product-design challenge for fintech.

Traditional financial products generally assume a relatively clean boundary between account holder and household. Real-world finances are increasingly interdependent. Digital payment platforms such as PayPal, Venmo and bank-to-bank payment systems have made person-to-person transfers easy, but the underlying reasons for those transfers can involve complicated family obligations.

The next opportunity may be connecting those transactions to better financial planning, budgeting and consent-based household visibility.

Financial confidence becomes the next fintech battleground

Despite the pressure revealed by the survey, respondents are not simply pessimistic. Fifty-seven percent said higher income, greater savings or emergency funds, or less debt would do the most to improve their financial confidence. Higher income was the leading priority at 31%.

That creates a distinction between financial information and financial confidence.

Consumers can already access transaction histories, credit scores, spending categorization and automated savings tools. The harder challenge is turning that information into decisions people feel capable of making.

Artificial intelligence could eventually play a role here, particularly through personalized financial coaching, scenario modeling and automated goal planning. But trust and privacy will be critical. TD’s own 2026 research on AI in financial services found that consumers are increasingly open to AI for routine financial tasks while continuing to emphasize human oversight for higher-stakes decisions.

That suggests a likely direction for financial wellness technology: AI may help organize the numbers, model possible outcomes and identify risks, while people retain control over consequential decisions.

For fintech companies, the opportunity is therefore larger than building another budgeting dashboard. Financial technology is increasingly being asked to operate inside the most complicated part of people’s lives—relationships, families and long-term plans.

The TD survey suggests that the industry’s next challenge may be making those conversations easier.

Market Landscape

The consumer-finance market is moving from financial management toward financial wellness.

Digital banks and fintech platforms increasingly provide budgeting, automated savings, credit monitoring, payment tools and AI-assisted financial guidance. But the TD research highlights a limitation: financial decisions are often shared even when financial data is not.

That creates opportunities around household financial planning, collaborative budgeting, family payments, financial coaching and consent-based data sharing.

The trend is also generational. Younger consumers are more likely to delay milestones and receive financial assistance from relatives, suggesting that fintech products built around a single financially independent consumer may not fully reflect how households actually operate.

TD’s broader research supports the importance of financial preparedness: its 2025 U.S. Financial Preparedness Survey found that 72% of respondents had been affected by unexpected bills, with 59% of those affected saying they went into debt.

For banks and fintech companies, the competitive question is shifting from “Can we help consumers manage money?” to “Can we help consumers make better financial decisions together?”

Top Insights

• TD’s 2026 Love & Money Survey finds financial stress affecting relationships, with 59% uncomfortable discussing finances and 30% admitting to financial secrecy.
• Three-quarters of respondents have postponed major milestones, creating implications for digital banking, lending, wealth management and financial-planning platforms.
• Gen Z and Millennials face the greatest pressure, making younger consumers important targets for financial wellness, budgeting and AI-powered money-management tools.
• Family financial support is becoming widespread, suggesting fintech platforms may need better tools for shared finances, intergenerational transfers and household planning.
• The findings reinforce a shift toward financial confidence technology, where AI and digital banking tools help consumers understand options rather than simply track transactions.

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