That said, 40% to 50% of marriages end in divorce, so there may be tremendous costs on the back end.
Ayup. A coworker of mine commented one day: he entirely paid for his house himself, then, after the divorce, he had to pay for half of the house again.
The first wife of a cousin of mine had ambitions of dumping John, but keeping the house, free and clear. Didn’t work out that way. My uncle had kept the house in his name, so it wasn’t part of the divorce settlement.
iirc, it was Za Za Gabor who said words to the effect “I’m an excellent housekeeper. Every time I get divorced, I keep the house”.
Of course, there is the flip side. One of my regular customers in my RS commented one day “I never had so much extra money when I was married”.
When my dad was dating his second wife, all he talked about what how her dad made a fortune in oil in Edmonton. After the marriage, all he talked about is how she spent all her own money, and spent his before he saw it.
I was talking with the CFO at work one day. He commented that they had to send runners out to the job sites delivering paychecks. Why didn’t the workers have direct deposit? If they had direct deposit, the wife would spend all the money on herself the moment it hit the bank account.
Remember the “free credit report dot com” TV adverts? I found this one to be particularly hilarious.
Free Credit Report - Dream Girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK4wOCcnbTk
Steve…happy bachelor with paid for condo