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Want to get rich? Try living with someone instead of getting married

The Good Girl’s Guide to Living in Sin: The New Rules for Moving In With Your Man
The Good Girl’s Guide to Living in Sin:
The New Rules for Moving In With Your Man

Quick, raise your hand if you’re currently living with your partner (girlfriend, boyfriend, significant other, etc).

Yeah, we thought so.  That’s a whole bunch of you out there, living in sin.

And while you may get yelled at by your parents or your clergy for shacking up with someone, maybe there’s some good reason for you to live together before marriage:

PEOPLE WHO LIVE TOGETHER BEFORE GETTING MARRIED CAN EARN TWICE AS MUCH INCOME AS THOSE WHO DIDN’T.

We know, right?

Let’s break this down again, since that one explanation isn’t especially clear:

  • individuals who marry the one and only person they have ever lived with will experience this income increase.
  • those who got married without living together did not see this increase

The study divided people into one of four groups:

  • Those who married directly and didn’t live with anyone
  • Those who lived only with their partner, then married them
  • Those that lived together with one partner, then married someone else
  • And those that lived with a number of people before getting married

What they found was that the average duration of these four marriage types was about the same – about 6 years, give or take.

But when they looked at the annual income levels for each grouping, while total salaries were approximately equal for the first few years, there was a slight increase in year 3 for the group that had lived with their one partner/spouse.  That difference grew larger in year 5, and by the 10th years of marriage, we’re looking at a maximum difference of 300% over one of the other groups in the study.

So what the researchers concluded was that there actually is some benefit to living together before marriage, contrary to popular opinion…. especially if that roommate is your first and only partner you live with before you walk down the aisle.

If you’ve had multiple live-in relationships?  Well, you’re pretty much screwed.  The continual rejection from each of your ex-partners can actually lead to lesser income possibilities.