Does marriage make you poorer?
The conventional wisdom is that getting married is good for your checking account. Is that still true?
Marriage doesn't offer the financial benefits it once did.
(Corbis/Tom Grill)
"Wean yourself off of fun now," lovebird, said Jessica Pressler in New York Magazine. Some young New York couples are paring back date expenses during the recession, and one couple told The New York Times they’re even embracing the new “penury”—“they feel it’s helping prepare them for the Next Step,” marriage. “Ha, that’s right,” because "that’s exactly what marriage is like: a recession. One loooong recession that never ends. Ever.”
Marriage may not actually make you poorer, said Barbara Kiviat in Time. But it probably won’t make you richer, either. The “conventional wisdom” is that sharing a mortgage and other big expenses lowers the cost of living, but “the economic benefit of marriage isn’t what it used to be.” Why? There are several factors, but the main reason for the narrowing married-single gap is that single women make a better living now.
Even if marriage doesn’t make you poorer, said Debbie Robins in The Huffington Post, money issues might well make you less likely to stay married. “Financial disagreements” are the reason 90 percent of divorcing couples give as the “primary cause for why their love turned to loathing.” Of course, the chances are if you’re “warring over money,” you’re really fighting over something else. But it’s good to keep in mind, in marriage and life, that money isn’t everything.
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3 Comments
Posted by mjg, Saturday, September 26, 2009, 12:00 am If I didn't accept the likelihood of becoming relatively poor, I wouldn't have gotten married. Actually, I think marriage is the last refuge of those who, like Peggy Lee, ask with regards to all the exciting things on earth, IS THAT ALL THERE IS?????? We married folks see that most of life in this world is boring, glossed up nonsense, so we grab for the last refuge, marriage. Actually, it worked for me, so I shouldn't make it sound so negative and depressing. If I weren't married, I'd probably be dead.
Posted by brokesingle, Friday, October 2, 2009, 7:26 am Most studies I've read show that marriage almost always increases wealth, so I'm going to go with no.
Posted by Never Again, Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 4:31 pm First I got married... and became poorer. Then she divorced me and the legal system as her engine of retribution took most of what I had and continue to earn for many years. If you think getting married makes you poorer... just wait until she ends up divorcing you. My ex drives a Lexus, and owns a new home... I on the other hand had to sell the house, live in an apartment, drive an old pickup and pay her a large percentage of my income.Solution: Don't get married.
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