|
|
05-04-2013, 08:29 PM
|
#21
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,130
|
If you are single you can only use a 19" TV screen. If you are married, you need a big screen TV set
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
|
|
|
|
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!
Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!
|
05-04-2013, 08:45 PM
|
#22
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11,401
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walt34
Why does it take an hour and four changes to pick a shirt out of the closet? I know "they all do that" - but why?
|
It's because we just enjoy the process.
|
|
|
05-04-2013, 08:58 PM
|
#23
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 12,596
|
I don't know why, either, and I am (and have always been) a woman. I grab a clean top out of the closet, tuck it into my jeans and go. Now, deciding on proper jewelry - that can get time-consuming.
I also don't understand why the line to the women's bathroom is so much longer. "It" just doesn't take that long! I always imagine the other ladies must be dealing with complicated undergarments, of which I would rather not know the details.**
Amethyst
**Speaking, naturally, of events where the ladies are not shepherding small children. Little kids and bathrooms....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walt34
I'm still trying to understand the female mind. Why does it take an hour and four changes to pick a shirt out of the closet? I know "they all do that" - but why?
|
__________________
If you understood everything I say, you'd be me ~ Miles Davis
'There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.’ Christopher Morley.
Even a blind clock finds an acorn twice a day.
|
|
|
05-04-2013, 09:15 PM
|
#24
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 6,129
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arifriekinel
I am just wondering why it is that marriage seems to cost more than living single according to the people on this board? I consistently read things like 'if I hadn't gotten married I'd have saved xx,' or 'I'm not married, so I'm able to save xy.'
I am not at that phase in my life, but I've been living with my partner for two years now and things seems to be much cheaper when we're together, while we're earning more combined. Is that just because we're young? Are those posts about the kid factor?
I'm just struggling to comprehend that aspect of the whole deal.
|
I think a lot depends on marrying someone who has the same financial goals as you do. If you are both LBYM types who can see FIRE as a long term benefit, it actually can make things easier.
But that isn't the easiest thing. As the saying goes, "opposites attract". So you can likely end up with someone who has a different view of saving and spending. The "keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome is more pronounced after marriage, and that places additional strain on planning for the long term.
Money is also much more of a "power/control" issue. You start comparing what each other makes, and that can bring resentment if it used to justify one's desire over the others desire. Being asked or told not to spend as much for certain things, and that can bring resentment - or even worse, spending behind the others back.
In marriage it takes two to tango, and unless both have their dance steps synchronized from a financial perspective, it can definitely cost more.
__________________
FIREd date: June 26, 2018 - "This Happy Feeling, Going Round and Round!" (GQ)
|
|
|
05-04-2013, 09:30 PM
|
#25
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 7,746
|
One good budgetary aspect of getting married is a reduction in the hooker/stripper spending category. Heck, some DW's force that category to near zero!
__________________
Retired in 2013 at age 33. Keeping busy reading, blogging, relaxing, gaming, and enjoying the outdoors with my wife and 3 kids (8, 13, and 15).
|
|
|
05-04-2013, 10:48 PM
|
#26
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Hooverville
Posts: 22,983
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by FUEGO
One good budgetary aspect of getting married is a reduction in the hooker/stripper spending category. Heck, some DW's force that category to near zero!
|
Very few guys who can spell "who" and wear matching socks are spending any money on hookers or strippers.
The world is full of attractive, friendly single women.
Ha
__________________
"As a general rule, the more dangerous or inappropriate a conversation, the more interesting it is."-Scott Adams
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 12:01 AM
|
#27
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 222
|
OK, so what I'm getting from you guys is less that marriage isn't money-draining in itself, it's just the rarity of finding someone with the same wants and needs as you.
But if you're both working, you can still have a lot more to save. It seems to be the gamble of relationships. Thanks! It's interesting to hear so many different takes :P
Quote:
Originally Posted by jollystomper
Money is also much more of a "power/control" issue. You start comparing what each other makes, and that can bring resentment if it used to justify one's desire over the others desire. Being asked or told not to spend as much for certain things, and that can bring resentment - or even worse, spending behind the others back.
|
My relationship right now is a unique and good situation. I've been with my almost clone for the last few years. Both LBYM, he had a ROTH IRA before we even got together. As far as the jealousy thing, all of our money is completely combined and we have no idea how much we make separately because we own a business together. We leave all of the money we don't use in the business and just plan to split it 50-50 if we split up.
As far as an hour to change clothes, as a woman, I've never done that and couldn't understand it XD I'm young enough that Boyfriend and I can wear the same shirts, so we both just have our t-shirts in a dresser in our apartment, and we grab two off the top and put them on, and we're good to go! Never done make up or jewelry, and I'm still to afraid to use public restrooms, so I've got no experience in those yet
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 12:42 AM
|
#28
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,130
|
If you are single, you don't need to ask permission to do things... like change the channel on the remote.
But I think overall, society views the connotation of happily married higher than happily single --Just a fact of life.
Also keep in mind, married people tend to be happier (at least they say so). Married people tend to live longer. But also married people can have messy divorces.
So take your pick on what path you wish to walk.
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 01:55 AM
|
#29
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 5,176
|
I always thought more men say being married is more expensive because their wives made less money (which is statistically true).
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 05:41 AM
|
#30
|
Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Eastern WV Panhandle
Posts: 25,299
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsmeow
One big issue is that married couples need to compromise and do things to meet the wants and needs of the other spouse. That is not at all a bad thing, but it is more costly.
|
It can be and I suppose that's why some spend more combined than either would alone.
I guess I got very lucky in that DW's priorities and mine are very closely aligned so we haven't had a disagreement over money - which is really about priorities - for over a decade.
__________________
When I was a kid I wanted to be older. This is not what I expected.
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 07:14 AM
|
#31
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Chattanooga
Posts: 3,877
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by haha
Very few guys who can spell "who" and wear matching socks are spending any money on hookers or strippers.
The world is full of attractive, friendly single women.
Ha
|
Amen and just because you are married doesn't mean you have to turn in your man card. I do whatever the hell I want as long as my wife is OK with it.
__________________
Earning money is an action, saving money is a behavior, growing money takes a well diversified portfolio and the discipline to ignore market swings.
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 07:19 AM
|
#32
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Madeira Beach Fl
Posts: 1,403
|
The truth: "I would have saved more except I spent it".
__________________
_______________________________________________
"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do" --Bob Dylan.
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 08:48 AM
|
#33
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Collin County, TX
Posts: 9,294
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arifriekinel
I am just wondering why it is that marriage seems to cost more than living single according to the people on this board?
|
You inherit out-laws in-laws.
__________________
There's no need to complicate, our time is short..
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 09:56 AM
|
#34
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,525
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by truenorth418
Theoretically, a two income HH ought to raise chances of reaching FI and ER.
|
This is a fact. If all things were equal, financial assets for singles at retirement ought to be half of those for married couples. The statistical reality is a much greater than 2:1 advantage to married couples, at least when the measure is accumulated savings.
Retirement: The married/single divide | Vanguard Blog
Financial savings of households with those aged 65–69 in 2008
From the blog story:
Quote:
One possible explanation is divorce...
Another explanation is being single throughout life...
Another likely culprit is early death of a spouse...
One lesson to draw from this data is that retirement security is more than accumulating savings. You need also to protect against large, unexpected claims...
|
The academic paper on which the blog post is based is here:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~bventi/Papers/w17824.pdf
__________________
No doubt a continuous prosperity, though spendthrift, is preferable to an economy thriftily moral, though lean. Nevertheless, that prosperity would seem more soundly shored if, by a saving grace, more of us had the grace to save.
Life Magazine editorial, 1956
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 11:08 AM
|
#35
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 3,679
|
If DH was single he'd spend just about everything and save next to nothing. Lights left on in every room, fans blowing on high and tv or radio left on while the house was empty. It's just his nature.
If I was single I'd be sitting in the dark except for the light of my computer as I fine tuned the spreadsheet showing how much I saved that day, that week, that month and what I expected to accumulate in the future.
In some ways we are opposites, but together we are a great team. We balance each other in a lot of ways. We need each other to bring us from our end of the spectrum toward the middle. Luckily, we don't argue about our differences, we try to respect them.
I don't care if it costs us more to be married. Taxwise, it's cheap for us to be married filing jointly with him retired and me with a very part-time job.
__________________
Married, both 69. DH retired June, 2010. I have a pleasant little part time job.
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 11:20 AM
|
#36
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 3,431
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Htown Harry
|
I recently read (sorry, I cannot recall the source but it was a in a paper having to do with retirement planning and planning for the eventual death of a spouse) that if the cost of living for singles indexed to 100, then for couples it is around 125 to 130. (The paper didn't get into all of the details but I think a huge chunk of this is savings in the cost of housing, among other things.)
Thus, two cannot live as cheaply as one, but it's a whole lot less than double the cost of a single.
omni
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 12:27 PM
|
#37
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 12,596
|
I may start a thread on "What is a man card,anyway?" I always thought having one meant being a stand-up guy - reliable, courageous, principled, etc. Sounds like quite an asset to marriage. (I know, I know...as usual, I don't quite "get the meme," as the young folks say )
Amethyst
Quote:
Originally Posted by frayne
Amen and just because you are married doesn't mean you have to turn in your man card. I do whatever the hell I want as long as my wife is OK with it.
|
__________________
If you understood everything I say, you'd be me ~ Miles Davis
'There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.’ Christopher Morley.
Even a blind clock finds an acorn twice a day.
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 12:52 PM
|
#38
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 222
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amethyst
I may start a thread on "What is a man card,anyway?" I always thought having one meant being a stand-up guy - reliable, courageous, principled, etc. Sounds like quite an asset to marriage. (I know, I know...as usual, I don't quite "get the meme," as the young folks say )
Amethyst
|
All I can say is I'm glad my generation has less of a rift between guys and girls. The things my parents and in laws talk about in relation to how men and women behave do not typically apply to us, it seems, so hopefully the 'man card' thing never does either.
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 01:47 PM
|
#39
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 13,202
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amethyst
I may start a thread on "What is a man card,anyway?" I always thought having one meant being a stand-up guy - reliable, courageous, principled, etc. Sounds like quite an asset to marriage. (I know, I know...as usual, I don't quite "get the meme," as the young folks say )
Amethyst
|
Nah, it's more like someone telling you to "turn in your man card" in response to you saying something like:
"I couldn't watch the football game because my wife dragged me out to go furniture shopping."
or
"I thought 'Room with a View' (or some other chick flick) was a really well-done movie."
|
|
|
05-05-2013, 01:59 PM
|
#40
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Denver
Posts: 3,504
|
For us, marriage was a good thing financially. We lived together for less than we could living separately. Sharing household chores also allows for more free/work time for both. Taking vacations together is also cheaper.
Tax rates were higher since we both worked, but overall, we believe it was positive.
|
|
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
» Recent Threads
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
» Quick Links
|
|
|