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Married people have an easier time accumulating wealth
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| trancaholic |
From Citizen-Times
| quote: | It pays to marry, and stay married
Study finds higher personal wealth among couples
WASHINGTON - Marrying for money, it turns out, works.
A study by an Ohio State University researcher shows that a person who marries - and stays married - accumulates nearly twice as much personal wealth as a person who is single or divorced.
And for those who divorce, it's a bit more expensive than giving up half of everything they own. They lose, on average, three-fourths of their personal net worth.
"Getting married for a few years and then getting divorced is clearly not the path to financial independence," said Jay Zagorsky, whose study divided married couples' assets so they could be compared with singles.
Zagorsky, a research scientist at OSU's Center for Human Resource Research, tracked the wealth and marital status of 9,055 people from 1985 to 2000. Those people have been participating in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which has repeatedly interviewed them about various aspects of their lives since 1979.
The participants are now 41 to 49 years old, making them the youngest of the baby boomers.
Zagorsky cautioned that results could be different for older and younger Americans, who have faced different attitudes about marriage, divorce and living together without marriage.
Zagorsky's study, which is published in the current issue of the Journal of Sociology, defines wealth as the total value of a person's assets, such as real estate, stocks and bank accounts, minus liabilities, such as mortgages.
A big reason married people accumulate more wealth than others is simple economies of scale - one household is cheaper to maintain than two, Zagorsky said. Divorce reverses those benefits, he said.
"Divorce looks like one of the fastest ways to destroy your wealth," Zagorsky said.
David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, said people become more economically productive after they marry.
"They work harder, they advance further in their job, they save more money, and maybe invest more wisely," Popenoe said. "That's because, one can speculate, they are now working for something larger than themselves. They are working for a family."
Zagorsky showed that single people slowly accumulated wealth during the study, going from a median of $1,500 at the start to $10,900 in the 15th year.
Married people accumulated wealth much faster, accumulating 93 percent more than single or divorced people over the life of the study, Zagorsky said.
People who divorced started losing net worth four years before their divorces were final, Zagorsky said. That could be because they had separated before divorcing, forcing them to support two households, he said.
The study found that men fared better than women after divorce, holding about 2 1/2 times the wealth. However, in dollars, it added up to a difference of only $5,124.
"While men come out slightly ahead, divorce destroys wealth dramatically for both sexes," Zagorsky wrote in his study. |
I think it's interesting that the article doesn't mention what I think is the most obvious reason why married people get wealthy: Married people tend to buy houses for having room for their kids. Over time they pay back the money they borrowed for this, and end up with property. Singles, on the other hand, tend to move from spot to spot, and most often rent. With this sort of lifestyle you don't accumulate wealth. Maybe it's just me, though. |
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| Shakka |
Speak for yourself!
I think the major difference is that married people have the sweet dual-income household...at least as long as it lasts before the wife says she doesn't want to work anymore and wants to become a baby machine! At which point I think the article is arguable.
Perhaps some married people are just more responsible vs. the crazy swinging, clubbing, money spending singles in the world.
The dual-income factor has definitely helped me and the wife get a house we like, cars we like and toys that we like. Things I would definitely have less of if I didn't have the extra income. |
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| Arbiter |
That's merely an incidental correlation with little intellectual value. Hence, it fits in well with the rest of the sociological inquiry being done these days.
Does marriage itself lead to the accumulation of wealth, or is it different (but possibly related) behaviors often associated with marriage? Unfortunately, this study, like most done in the social sciences, fails to control for the other variables involved in the equation. Consequently, it offers only new questions, rather than answers. |
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| Shakka |
| quote: | Originally posted by Arbiter
Does marriage itself lead to the accumulation of wealth, or is it different (but possibly related) behaviors often associated with marriage? |
Very good point! I think I could argue against it alllll day long! Opus, can I get a hell yeah?
Marriage does lead to wedding presents, which would otherwise be extremely expensive to purchase on your own dime. Unfortunately, most of those presents are geared towards the ladies. |
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| Trancer-X |
Pardon my digression, but we still have yet to solve the biggest problem - which is the fact that once our frail human bodies are gone, we can't take any of our superfluous material bull with us! :whip:
Or could that be a blessing rather than a problem? :D
http://www.kheper.net/topics/blind_...hant/index.html |
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| Fir3start3r |
| I know we enjoy being a couple of DINKS (Double Income No KidS) :p ;) |
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| josh4 |
So if you want to get rich faster, get married. Only you won't be able to spend it on much considering the lifestyle. Then should you decide you want to enjoy your newfound weath, you can't because if you devoice you loose everything. ing catch-22s....
Then again you could get a legal marrage with some chick only to enjoy the benefits. Hmm... |
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| Trancer-X |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fir3start3r
I know we enjoy being a couple of DINKS (Double Income No KidS) :p ;) |
I don't know how my grandfather managed to go through like five or six divorces, with my mom being from like his third marriage. I can't even imagine the amount of money he must have paid out in alimony alone.
Consequently, though - I think it's kind of cool that I have an aunt and an uncle who are both a few years younger than me. :D
So if you value your materialism like most people in our shallowly defined world do, don't get divorced - unless you're either married to an heiress or have a load of money to dole out.
:p |
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| Trancer-X |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
Then should you decide you want to enjoy your newfound weath, you can't because if you devoice you loose everything. ing catch-22s....
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Or you could just do like my grandpop did when he married a 19 year old from Buenos Aires (his fifth marriage, I think). He saw through her when she asked him for a Rolls-Royce on their one year anniversary, so he had her shipped back to Argentina. I doubt that would still fly today, though - so nevermind. :p |
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| MisterOpus1 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Shakka
Very good point! I think I could argue against it alllll day long! Opus, can I get a hell yeah? |
Hell yeah.
I dunno, I guess the dual income does play a factor. But I'm still havin' to take a load out of loans in order to support my professional student status. The Mrs. can't support me very much anymore..... |
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| Jake Benson |
Wow, this is great. I should get married now! :)
Oh nevermind, I'm a fag. Thilly me. :crazy: |
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