Quote:
Originally Posted by unluky
If we take religion out of it - marriage is just incorporating your commitment in the laws eyes. I have absolutely nothing at all against marriage for the record, even though I have never been married. I have however seen marriage ruin a lot of peoples lives - women and men. Usually their faults though.
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Youre applying a selection bias though, tons of people manage to ruin their lives without marraige. Jobs, cars, houses, drugs, knocking some chick up, getting knocked up, etc.
Im 40 and never married. Personally it holds no value to me because of a lot of the reasons you mentioned (its not required for a commitment, Im a heathen, etc). Not saying I never would, but it would be more of a gift I gave to the right woman, not something Id ever need.
But the times I have gotten close the risk to me was minimal. Most states have moved on from the old ways by now, if they do spousal support or equity distribution of assets its really just a comparison of earners and earning potential.
One advantage of not dating 20 year olds is the women Ive been with can make their own money, own their own homes, etc. The current girlfriends situation is similar. Her house is worth about as much as mine and she only owes about $50k more. I make about double than she does but, at least on paper, her net worth is more than mine because of her business. Georgia is one of those states where you show what you brought in and you can take it with you, its just the additional wealth accrued during the marriage that has to be figured out. House is easy, she could try for temporary spousal support (which is short here anyway) but then Id go for equity in the business, so likely Id just say, "You don't ask for spousal support and I wont ask for equity, deal?"
Honestly that's the most common situation among my group of friends. Most just uncoupled because they were both high earners with degrees, etc. Even those with kids just ended up with 50/50 with one person being "primary" and they end up paying something paltry like a couple of hundred bucks for child support a month. Its only going to be a war if you are really imbalanced in wealth/earning in a backwards state.