Married People Are 77% Richer Than Single People

[james.hendrickson]

All,

Posting a classic analysis that's impacted my thinking:

In 2005, economist Jay Zagorsky compared the wealth of single people versus married people - and found that married people accumulated about 77% more wealth than singles.


Marriage and divorce’s impact on wealth
Jay L. Zagorsky
First Published December 1, 2005 Research Article
https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783305058478

Abstract

What impact do marriage and divorce have on wealth? US data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), which tracks individuals in their 20s, 30s and early 40s, show that over time single respondents slowly increase their net worth. Married respondents experience per person net worth increases of 77 percent over single respondents. Additionally, their wealth increases on average 16 percent for each year of marriage. Divorced respondents’ wealth starts falling four years before divorce and they experience an average wealth drop of 77 percent. While in percentage terms divorce hurts women more than men, the absolute difference is relatively small in the US.

[james.hendrickson]

And here is a follow up interview with the author:

https://mrdrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/qa/pdf/QandAZissimopoulos.pdf

In it, he basically addresses whether richer people are more likely to get married, or whether marriage makes you richer. And his answer is, it's both.

[disneysteve]

James the articles are interesting but why are you suddenly posting things from many years ago? This is 16 years old and the obesity one is 17 years old. The Amish article is 11 years old. These things were probably already discussed when they first came out.

[james.hendrickson]

James the articles are interesting but why are you suddenly posting things from many years ago? This is 16 years old and the obesity one is 17 years old. The Amish article is 11 years old. These things were probably already discussed when they first came out.

So my belief Disneysteve is that just because something is "old" does not make it less true or less relevant to personal finance. You could argue that maybe Zagorsky's statistical methods are outdated and that perhaps more modern methods might result in a different finding...but I don't think that changes the underlying message of the research. As I see it there are two major points in the stuff I posted today:

1. Stay married

2. Exercise

Both of these impact your wealth positively. I doubt if this will change in the future.

[disneysteve]

So my belief Disneysteve is that just because something is "old" does not make it less true or less relevant to personal finance.

Very true.

The basics never really change.

[bjl584]

Depends on the marriage partner.
Two people on the same page, both sharing a goal of saving and investing, and both earning decent incomes, will probably come put ahead of a single person doing the same.

I guess you could also make an argument that a single person who never marries or has kids will have much lower expenses than a married couple, and they just might do better financially.