Be my Valentine? Married men make more money, live longer
Do you have that special someone, but haven’t yet “popped the question” and asked them to marry you — for whatever reason?
In this season of love, also known as Valentine’s Day, it is nice to be reminded that the benefits of sharing the depths of oneself with another actually leads not only to longer life, but also a more prosperous one as well, especially for men. How wonderful is it, also, to be in love and know that your significant other should live longer and make more money over their lifetime because of you.
One major study of more than 120,000 Americans published by Harvard Medical School found that married men live longer than their non-married, divorced or widowed counterparts. And according to Japanese scientists, never-married men are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than married men by a factor of 300 percent -- and another study found that married men had a 46 percent lower rate of death than unmarried men.
The University of Miami studied over 140,000 cases of prostate cancer and found that married men survived an average of nearly three years longer than widowed or separated men, with UCLA and Harvard discovering similar results for married bladder cancer survivors.
Even more studies have found that the more educated a man’s wife, the more he lowers his risk for coronary artery disease, high cholesterol and hypertension, among others.
So, married men live more healthily and longer, but what about the financial benefits to marriage, besides the economies of scale that come from sharing one household? Well, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, married men with at least a high school diploma earn more than single men at every age from 20 to 64.
The St. Louis Fed reported that, at age 30, married men make over $13,000 more per year than single men the same age, and at age 45, they make over $35,000 more. One study also found that married participants saved an average of 48 percent more toward retirement than singles.
To sum it up, according to the data, married men live longer, live healthier, earn more their whole lives and build more for retirement than their single counterparts. The studies show benefits to married women are not as pronounced as men, although they are noted.
So if your significant other is pressuring you to put a ring on it— he or she may be doing you a favor. Wishing much love, health and earnings is found on this Valentine’s Day.
Rebecca Walser is a tax attorney, a certified financial planner, and the author of Wealth Unbroken, who specializes in the strategic planning of maximizing lifetime wealth while minimizing tax through her practice, Walser Wealth Management (www.walserwealth.com). She earned her juris doctor degree from the University of Florida and her Master of Law degree in taxation from New York University. She is a frequent national media contributor.