There are many who believe that getting married is more of a financial liability than a benefit. And if you're being carried away by all these popular beliefs, think again.
Financially, getting into a nuptial agreement is way better than cohabiting - here are three solid reasons why.
1. Marriage helps makes you more financially responsible
Once you take vows to stay with each other through thick and thin, exchange rings and come out of the church, you become different people.
The very thought of shouldering the responsibility of a family brings out stability in people. Your spouse's happiness becomes your own, and your responsibility too. Through marriage, you learn the true meaning of self-sacrifice and understanding. Through marriage, you become a better person — a more financially responsible one.
Marriages always bring additional financial responsibilities with them; children, for example. You become a better and more financially responsible parent while trying to provide your children with a better life. You earn to raise them, save for their education, and to buy them needs and wants.
Having a family causes you to deal with your finances more wisely than ever before. It doesn't matter what a whimsical spendthrift you were; you make every penny count post-marriage. Now you prepare the monthly household budget, plan for emergency funds, contribute toward retirements plans, and save for your and your children's future.
2. Marriage saves you money in various places
Perhaps our society loves married couples more and that's why it has flooded them with numerous benefits. To start with, there are manytax benefits for married couples. For instance, while transferring an estate or selling a home, your couple status can save you some nice figures on tax day. On top of that, the IRS has recently issued its final say on a generous estate-tax break for millions of couples.
Possibly one of the greatest financial benefit of couplehood is getting access to easy and cheap health insurance. If one spouse works full-time and has access to the company's health insurance, he or she can add the non-working spouse for a few additional bucks. Whereas, if the couple is not married, both of them have to acquire health insurance from different providers.
Married couples can save in auto insurance too. According to Insure.com, in Indianapolis, a 23-year-old could see as much as a 26 percent decrease when he or she applies for coverage as a married couple.
Moreover, if you two have full-time jobs and are looking for a mortgage loan, your combined income will allow you to qualify for a bigger amount with better terms.
3. Marriage always brings better financial protection
Though we don't get married for financial protection, marriage offers it in abundance. Marriage is real, and the fallout from divorce is real, too. If you don't cohabit legally, how the proceeds would be divided on the wake of a separation isn't quite clear, as in most states divorce law doesn't apply to unmarried couples. What would happen to you or your children if you move out of an unmarried relationship? Predicaments are less in a divorce since the court divides the assets and each party is often left with roughly half of the marital assets.
In a recent Demography article, Laura Tach and Alicia Eads were able to demonstrate that the monetary cost of divorce dropped over time, while dissolving a cohabiting coalition increased; thus confirming that marital unions are advantageous over cohabiting in a separation circumstance as well.
