Marriage is generally thought of as a way to accomplish some of our hopes and dreams and share those with someone we love. Marriage is about raising families, growing together and displaying the partnership to the world as we strive to be better together every day. Those are great components of marriage, but there are many benefits of marriage we have not considered and you may not be familiar with.
Lower Risk of Death
A professor at the University of Louisville analyzed the data from 90 previous studies of over 500 million people. It compared the risks of those never married to those who have been married. Single men saw a 32 percent higher risk of early death than married men; single women had a 23 percent higher risk. The numbers could be tied to poorer health benefits, public assistance, less income and the lack of social support of a spouse.
Additional studies show married people were more likely to detect (and therefore survive) cancer and less likely to die after suffering a heart attack than their single counterparts.
Lower Stress
Married women tend to have less stress on the job, environmental stress, stress with children, financial and relationship stress than formerly married women. Although there remains a level of stress in each of these instances, the support level in the marriage and the stability in the marriage compensates for some of these challenges.
Higher Sexual Satisfaction
Here’s one that could surprise you: Married couples report greater sexual satisfaction. Couples in married, monogamous relationships report better, more frequent sex than couples in single or cohabitation relationships. There are several reasons for this, but one of the most important to consider is shared intimacy. Learning and knowing your spouse and building a level of trust beyond dating opens us to levels of intimacy we don’t have before marriage.
Tax and Wealth Guarantees
According to Turbo Tax, married couples received tax benefits such as estate protection, more tax write-offs and more. Whether the household is supported by two incomes or one, the couple can see more wealth benefits than he or she would as an individual.
Affluence
There is a notion today that having “made it” increases the chances of marriage. The concept has been turned on its head. Marriage increases the opportunity for affluence, not the other way around. Couples have more opportunities to move out of less desirable neighborhoods and women have higher earning potential than their parents and grandparents did one to two generations ago. Joint earning potential is higher now than it has ever been (because of the opportunities for women), which positions marriages to have more of an opportunity to be affluent.
Volunteering
In 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor, married persons volunteered at a higher rate (29.9 percent) in 2015 than those who had never married (19.9 percent) and those with other marital statuses (20.2 percent). Marriage often brings about a sense of being able to focus on the bigger picture of life. The selflessness that builds in healthy marriages often spills over into other facets of our lives, and we want to become more and more a part of the solution to the challenges people deal with daily.
Marriage has many great benefits to consider before saying “I do.” When we find the right person for us, it’s good to know there are so many other benefits we will receive when we walk down the aisle and agree on the two to become one.
BMWK, what other benefits of marriage can you think of?