Marriage And Money Matter

Marriage and Money Matter

Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

Proverbs 3:9-10, NIV

Did you know you’re getting paid to be married? That’s what research from Ohio State University suggests. The study found that people who walk down the aisle and stay hitched accumulate nearly twice as much wealth as those who are single or divorced.

Economist Jay Zagorsky of OSU’s Center for Human Resource Research tracked the financial and marital status of more than nine thousand people. Among that sample group he found that over a fifteen-year period, people who got married and stayed married acquired 93 percent more wealth than single or divorced people did in the same amount of time. That’s amazing!

And what about the wealth of those who married and divorced? According to the study, it decreased by 77 percent, which is a greater loss than would occur by simply splitting a couple’s assets in half. Why? Because after a divorce, a couple suddenly needs two of everything, which means two sets of payments—for rent or mortgage, car payments and auto insurance, households, furnishings, everything. Plus, there’s the cost of the divorce itself, in lawyers and court fees, not to mention the time it requires, which may mean time off of work and loss of income.

On the other hand, marriage has financial rewards: “Married people boosted their wealth by about 4 percent each year—just as a result of being married—with all other factors held constant.”^a Now, you may not feel like your wealth is being boosted as a result of your marriage, but if you are like most couples, you need to count your blessings in this typically unnoticed reward.

Then, as today’s verse reminds, you need to honor the Lord with this blessing of not only companionship but wealth as well. Talk with your spouse if you’re not sure the two of you are giving your “firstfruits” to the Lord. It’s important to manage your money as well as your relationship in a God-honoring way.

Money may buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail.

—Richard “Kinky” Friedman

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