‘Only rich people are getting married’, new research suggests, as ‘marriage gap’ widens
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/rich-people-married-research-marriage-gap/
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
‘Only rich people are getting married’, new research suggests, as ‘marriage gap’ widens
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/rich-people-married-research-marriage-gap/
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
26 Comments
I heard this on LBC by chance and the guest was right. There is only downside to marrying and moving in together.
> Rich people are getting married at a way higher rate than those with lower incomes as the ‘marriage gap’ between rich and poor hits a record 51%.
I think LBC needs to learn what ‘only’ means.
Because only rich men can afford the cost of divorce.
What’s even in it for the average person when it comes to marriage these days? spends lots of money on the ceremony and lose half your shit if things go tits up and end in divorce? Sounds great.
There really isn’t a benefit in being married here. In the US there are some tax benefits, here that is only the case if one spouse makes little to no money. Everything else you can more or less take care of with a will and directives. So what’s the point?
It costs like £80 to get married at the registry office.
It’s weddings that people want, and they’re expensive. Getting married isn’t expensive.
Yeah it has been unaffordable for my partner and I and we would not want anything big. And we are not the lowest earners at all, but we had more important priorities such as housing. We are now at the age where everyone else in our friendships has had their weddings so no one would ever be excited for ours if we ever got round to it.
Only rich people can afford a very glamorous wedding.
Everyone knows getting married can be cheap as you want it after essential fees paid
I mean of course, like only rich people are buying second home. Duh
I don’t get the wedding hype at all. Throw a decent party and then casually pocket the change – probably enough to put a bloody mortgage down
Our wedding for 65 guests cost £15k all in and we saved for 2.5 years to afford it (no holidays etc). It was the best day of our lives and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
When will people learn nobody actually wants to go to a wedding, Nobody ever looks back and thinks thank god I went to Susan and Steve’s wedding
Rich people can afford the 50/50 chance of divorce. When you haven’t got much, it’s a bigger hit to your finances and not worth the gamble.
“I need a big party all about me!!” That’s what weddings have become. It’s not about coming together as a couple because most couples have been together several years before marriage.
It’s not about moving in together because again most couples live together before they get married now.
It’s not about having kids either because – you guessed it – we have kids out of wedlock all the time.
It’s purely a show of wealth, “I’m a princess for a day”, and following pressured tradition from family “when are you two getting married then”.
Elope. Elope. Elope.
Spend your honeymoon budget getting married on a nice trip abroad and then celebrate with family back at home. Throwing a needless wedding is just setting fire to all your money for the sake of pleasing your family and friends who likely wouldn’t care either way anyway.
We got married at the registry office with immediate family and then went for a nice pub meal. The whole thing (plus suit and dress) were about £500-600
We got married at the registry office, then had a knees up at our local village hall. We bought party food and all the drink for the guests and spent the evening prior to that decorating the hall with our loved ones. Everyone commented on how it was a lovely wedding and we didn’t put ourselves in debt over it.
You don’t have to break the bank to get married.
Culturally people generally got married when they buy a starter home and have kids. People can’t afford the starter home and kids.
The poor are too busy working and wanking to think about getting on in life. Too easily seduced by porn after an 8+ hour shift working in usually physically and or mentally/ emotionally draining roles keeping the country going, while being denied basics like decent housing and disposable cash to enjoy life with. Ah well, as long as they keep that work up.
Hmm my partner and I are getting married next year – 7 years together already. We aren’t from wealthy backgrounds and we are saving aggressively for our wedding. We’re both happy to make the sacrifice for a couple of years to have the wedding we want. A wedding should be what you want it to be and while they are certainly an expense, it’s worth it for us
~250K baht (£5.5K at time) for ours in Thailand. venue hire, ~300 guests, monks from local Wat, photographer, 2 costume changes, musicians, catering, pre-wedding pics, all felt pretty lavish. the problem is as much the ripoff prices of absolutely everything in UK.
44% of kids born don’t live with both parents through their entire childhood:
https://news.sky.com/story/nearly-half-of-uk-children-now-growing-up-outside-traditional-family-says-review-12686586
And there’s a lot of evidence that growing up in unstable families is damaging for children:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47057787
If you stay unmarried it’s much easier to fiddle your benefits. E.g. you can claim harassment/homelessness while still shacked up and get a golden ticket to a council house
I am 31m, no kids. I honestly don’t see the point in getting married, just my opinion not saying it should apply to all as all of our situ are different.
I know a few people who are in committed LTR who are not married and they are happy enough. I think the happiness part is all that matters not the legal status.
I personally wouldn’t risk the chance of 50% of my assets being lost. Some will say you get some tax benefits etc, honestly that’s a drop in the ocean compared to a 50% loss.
If I met someone on a similar level then we also wouldn’t need a tax break so it proves my point for my situation further.
It only really makes sense if you are starting on a similar level and choose to have children. I believe should things go wrong, it makes it easier to look after the children financial etc.
Otherwise, yeh cannot see myself getting married.
Imo marriage should be 95% about the commitment and 5% about the ceremony. We know this isn’t the case as some people go crazy on the weddings.
I know a few who spent 20+ on a wedding, not anything close to millionaires. The relatives tell me how nice it was but I think its stupid. You could each spend a weekend away in a lovely hotel for a few hundred pounds. Do a few activities like the theatre etc and a meal and you would spend another £200. That’s sorta £700.
How an earth does it come to 20K plus for a wedding! Also fuck the extended family. Take them to The Harvester the week after and spend another £700. Not 20K.
I think in general we’re expose to too much idealised imagery… plus we don’t live in tiny villages anymore so are also exposed to more and more people who have attributes that not everyone can easily obtain (taller, funnier, richer, happier, skinnier, etc).
Maybe the puritanical religious countries have it right. Having less exposure to Hollywood movies and enforcing modesty may actually have a net psychological benefit.
It’s not the cost of getting married. It’s the cost of validated probability playing out and losing half of everything you own to either party.
In the social media driven attention economy, marriage is fighting for its very survival.