Married people are richer. If you read much personal finance literature, you’ll have learned this by now. While it’s an interesting observation, what’s more interesting is why this is:
Speculation has involved a variety of topics:
1) Economies of Scale: In married households, there are economies of scale. Basically, its more efficient for two people to live together than for a single person alone.
2) Personality: Married people have personalities which are more conducive to building wealth. For example, if you’re a looser, an idiot or flaky it’s less likely that you’ll both get married or build wealth. In other words, it might be that married people are richer simply because they have personalities more conducive to building wealth (e.g. they aren’t losers).
3) Expectations and Lifestyle Changes: Society values marriage. It might be that after people become married, they change their behavior to meet social expectations. As their behavior changes, they become more responsible, save for the future, etc. It may also be once married, couples receive more financial support from relatives, etc. Basically, marriage makes your get your act together.
If you’re looking to seriously understand why marriage builds wealth, you might consider the following links:
The Case for Marriage
Marriage, Wealth and Housing
Wealth Effects Differ By Race
Personally, I think the reason why married results in greater wealth is probably due to some combination of the three topics.
Most recently, a study by Jay Zagorsky has drawn a lot of media and blog attention to this topic. I’ve read the Zagorsky article. While it’s important, one should remember that it’s not exactly a new finding. Sociologists have known that marriage builds wealth for years.
For news on Zagorsky’s study:
Here
Blogland commentary regarding Zagorsky:
Free Money Finance
Young and Broke
Science Blog
In terms of my and Miel’s situation, we are getting married on July 1st out in Oregon. I don’t know if it will make us richer, but it will make us a lot happier!
Hope you enjoy!
-James
DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) Finance is a blog discussing personal finance for couples. While by no means financial experts, we own a variety of assets including real estate and stocks. We've both been up to our eyeballs in debt and have made tons of financial mistakes. However, we've both successfully retired that debt and we both do learn from our failings. We hope that our voice in this blog can help others in achieving their goals!
