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For Richer, For Poorer II
Emotions, Money and Marriage in America

Marriage Penalty crop

An award-winning, nationally-syndicated personal finance columnist, Liz Pulliam Weston writes:

* The median net worth of married-couple households in the latest Census Bureau wealth study, conducted in 2002, was $101,975. For single men, median wealth was $23,700. For single women, $20,217.

* A 15-year study of 9,000 people found that during that time, people who married and stayed married built up nearly twice the net worth of people who stayed single. …when…other factors are held constant…income and education…the fact that they were married contributed to a 4% annual rise in these couples’ wealth.

* Wealth declines typically started four years before a divorce was final…the breakup ultimately reduced the typical person’s net worth by 77% of that of the average single person.

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Liz Pulliam is the most-read personal finance columnist on the Internet.

Most of us grew up in a home controlled by adults. The attitudes about money that those adults hold, whether we like or disagree with them, shape our lives. Inevitably they shape how we see ourselves, and ultimately how we perceive our place in the world.

Individuals who grow up in a home where one or both parents donate a lot of time to their job, career or profession and making money, whether out of necessity or because they love their work, will view money quite differently than those who come from a home where money is viewed as simply important for acquiring the things one needs to live healthily and joyfully.

Two spouses of a marriage who come from the same economic strata could hold quite different views on this matter.

One spouse may view living joyfully and healthily to include spending money frugally, and contributing time to less expensive ventures.

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