What are the financial pros and cons of marriage?

Question

i mean do I marry my live in bf or just continue to shack?

Answer 1

share of money and sometimes the love of your life

Answer 2

Pro for the woman, con for the man.

Answer 3

The pros for a women are quasi-security - you can financially level the guy's world if he leaves.

After a couple of years of shacking, you're married anyways in the eyes of the law.

Answer 4

financial pros-2 incomes assuming both work

financial cons-2 spenders and not balancing between necessities and luxuries

Answer 5

According to this MSN article, 51% of married couples who filed their taxes jointly paid less than they would have if filing as single people. If you and your boyfriend have very different incomes, you will probably see some tax breaks as a married couple. http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxe...

On the other hand, 42% of married couples filing jointly paid more taxes. According to the article, those who saw the biggest increases were minimum-wage workers.

The article also lists some other financial benefits of marriage, including:

- Increased healthcare benefits from your job (you and your partner can qualify for each other's healthcare plans).

- Social Security benefits

- Estate tax and inheritance benefits. If your boyfriend died and named you in his will, you'd owe a huge percentage of the inheritance in taxes. Not so with married couples.

- Married people tend to live longer

- The standard tax deduction for married couples is 2x that of singles.