••• financial services research

After the honeymoon, think about money soon

TD Ameritrade’s Marriage & Money survey of 1,000 married and 1,000 unmarried adults (ages 37 and older) found that getting married can serve as a trigger for Americans to focus more on their finances, particularly for men. In fact, 37 percent of married Americans report paying more attention to their finances after getting married.

Married couples also report additional shifts in perspective and habits. A third of married men and 28 percent of married women report saving more money after getting hitched. Thirty-two percent of married men and 28 percent of married women started to worry more about the future. Three in 10 (30 percent) married individuals rely on their spouses to help manage their savings and investments (39 percent of females vs. 19 percent of males). And 30 percent of married Americans say the moral support that keeps each other on track is the biggest financial benefit of getting married.

While marriage often serves as an incentive to financial responsibility, it also has its challenges. One-third (34 percent) of married Americans report that they are not always “financially faithful” to their spouse and 39 percent don’t believe their spouse is entirely financially faithful to them. On average, married Americans report having argued with a spouse about money 4.3 times in the past year.

••• data analysis

Data pros not analyzing much data

A survey by TMMData, State College, Pa., in partnership with the Digital Analytics Association, shows that nearly two in five (38.7 percent) data professionals are spending more than half of their work week on tasks unrelated to actual analysis: 43.8 percent of managers reported that 51 percent or more of their team’s work week is spent collecting, integrating and preparing data rather than analyzing it, while 31.3 percent of analysts said they spend 21 or more hours a week on data housekeeping.

Forty-three percent of respondents said access was one of their top-two analytics challenges. Nearly three in five respondents (56.9 percent) said it takes days or weeks to access all the data they need and nearly 10 percent say they can rarely or never access a complete range of data sources. Only 33.4 percent of data professionals are immediately able to access all their data or can get it in less than a day.