Could strategies borrowed from Wall Street actually be the secret to your domestic bliss? Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson say yes, and have outlined all the principles that helped boost their marriages in their book, Spousonomics. "What we’re saying is that economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources," Jenny explains. "Sounds technical and horrible, but what do couples do every morning but argue about who's gonna cook, who's gonna clean, who's gonna do carpool, who's gonna do school lunch, who's gonna do soccer practice, who's gonna do bottle duty ... That causes so much tension in marriages, so our book really borrows from economics to try to figure out better ways of allocating your time."

Paula and Jenny put their "Spousonomics" plan to work with Alan and Libra, a couple who admits that an improvement in how they divide up chores could improve their marriage. Paula explains, "We decided to just look at what their marriage looks like: How much time were they spending bickering, how much time were they spending with their kids, how much time were they spending having sex, and then we made an aspirational chart of what we want their marriage to look like."

After speaking with Alan and Libra and learning about their daily routines, the authors found that the couple was spending about 50 percent of their energy on the kids and 30 percent on housework, and together time, including sex, accounted for only 10 percent of their time. "I was really surprised when I saw how little time we were spending together and how much more time we were spending doing chores and other things I’ll call unexciting," Alan says. "I think what it taught me is to have a new game plan and how to approach it differently and sort of have a better outlook on our day to day."

Libra adds that initially she was a bit skeptical at looking at their relationship through the lens of economics. "But it really highlighted what I could do to help Alan out in the house," she says, "and it really highlighted what he could do to help me. I mean, we married each other for a reason, we love each other, but sometimes you lose sight of that; the businessy approach was great because now we see it in black and white."

Now Alan and Libra are working together to make their lives look more like the breakdown they want it to be: only 45 percent of their time on the kids and 25 percent on housework, with a whopping 27 percent allocated to together time and sex! Watch the video above to see Paula and Jenny help Alan and Libra put the principles of "Spousonomics" into action!

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"Spousonomics"