5 Reasons Why Marriage Is Still the Best Option

Growing old is not for the faint of heart. I learned this firsthand recently after spending more than a month in a hospital due to a spinal injury that required additional months of rehabilitation and at-home care. I don’t know how I would have handled my recovery without the love and care I received from my wife and family.

Falling in love is magical. But finding your forever person is not always easy. We don’t usually get to pick our lobster from the grocery store fish tank.

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As it turns out, when you do find “the one,” there is a winning formula for success that we all learned at the school playground. It goes, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage.”

We looked at the data to find out why love, then marriage, then children, create healthier lifestyles, greater stability and a more successful community. Here is what we found:

1. Married-parent families tend to have higher incomes than single-parent families

According to a study by the Brookings Institution, this comes down to simple addition: Two people tend to earn more than one. Kind of like how two hands are better than one or how carpooling saves gas.

2. Married couples tend to achieve more of the goals they set for themselves

Making a serious commitment “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health” creates purpose. And that purpose leads to results that statistically surpass those who remain single or cohabitate. As a result, married couples benefit from collaboration and sharing thoughts and ideas that help them collectively make better decisions. It’s a win/win situation. 

3. Marriage benefits overall society

According to the American Enterprise Institute report, “Strong Families, Prosperous States” marriage plays a “particularly important role” in getting young men to participate in the labor force. Married families also have fewer members who are involved in violent crime and children living below the poverty rate. Studies clearly show that family planning at an earlier age improves outcomes for children.

4. Marriage is better for your health

Benjamin Franklin famously advised that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Although Franklin was focused on fire prevention, the same adage applies to marriage.