For Love Or Money: Is It Cool To Hide Cash From Your Partner?

Marriage! A partnership where what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours. Unless you’re Nazita Aminpour: She’s suing Chase bank for notifying her husband of her (secret) individual account with $800,000 in it.

Aminpour, of Kew Gardens, Queens, NY, is a dentist. While she and husband David Shamash have a joint account with Chase, she never informed him of her own personal account. Here’s what happened: A bank employee cold-called Shamash, suggesting he take “his” money out of that account and invest it in other ways. Naturally, he started “harassing” his wife for money, asking for funds to invest in the stock market. According to the law suit, he “alienat[ed]” Aminipour until she gave him $155,000 “to save her marriage and restore order in the marital home.”

So many questions here, the first of which is this: Is it cool to keep a “secret” account your husband knows nothing about? On the one hand, if you’ve pledged to be with this person until death, surely you trust them enough to say, hey, listen, I have another cash stash? On the other hand, obviously this woman knew her husband very well: Keeping her finances hush-hush was wise, considering the minute he found out about the cash, he started “harassing” her. Who knows? Maybe she was saving to buy them both a house or vacation and knew he’d be risky and irresponsible with the money. Then again, as the famous quote goes, “Secrets are made to be found out with time.”

In general, nothing comes between people like money woes. But is it better to be honest, no matter what? Or is it okay to hide a “secret” bank account from your husband (or wife)? And what is up with Chase spilling the beans in a cold call?!?!