Marriage without children?....And divorce

[Patrick Bateman]

i dont know if this is so in every country but over here every sane man would be absolutely crazy to get maried. when the [censored] hits the fan later on a man has nothing to say whatsoever

[Patrick Bateman]

btw i have a gf and 2 kids of 7 and 6 yrs old

[Fedorfan]

[ QUOTE ]

the main reason to get married but not have children is the improved legal status that comes from it. taxes, health care issues, managing assets, etc is all simplified or improved.

the other reason is that it is a tradition, a meaningful ceremony that people participate in, much like people wear robes and walk across a stage to finish college, or bury their dead in a meaningful place and gather to commemorate their life. basically you are saying that this particular tradition is not meaningful to you, but to a lot of people it is still important.

it is also an excuse to throw an awesome party.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with the whole traditional aspect of getting married even if you and your partner don't want kids, however, couldn't you still have the whole traditional ceremony without actually getting the government involved to certify your union? Get married in costa rica or something, throw a big party, keep the government out of your private life, set up trusts and other legal financial agreements with your gf/wife, and the only real difference here is if it doesn't work out you avoid any potential nasty drawn out divorce, fighting over assets and paying lawyers lots of money.

Also as far as tax and health care benefits, i would imagine that the benefits of these for the guy, are insignificant to what on average a guy will likely have to give up if a divorce happens, and considering the divorce rates, i think it's fair to factor this in vs the benefits.

[Blarg]

I doubt that would work, especially in places where you can have common law marriages. Live with your wife for seven years and have her produce a marriage certificate from another country, and she can have the traditional her "share"/whatever she wants.

[Fedorfan]

you could be right, i haven't really looked into the legal aspects of common law marriages. I was having a conversation about this with my buddy last night over a few beers. He's in his mid twenty's like myself, only that he's been married and divorced and got burned pretty hard. Basically, even though he was the bread winner in household he gave his wife practically everything in terms of assets just to get it all over with, and be done with her.

Out of 100k in assets or so that they had in equity in their house and bank accounts, all he took was 2k to get him started in a new apartment, because he realized what a pain it would be to go threw a drawn out nasty divorce with this bitch, and he'd rather end it quickly with his sanity still somewhat intact and get a fresh start.

[Blarg]

Unfortunately reminiscent of so many stories so many others know about from their own social circles.

[leehrat]

the prospect of marriage scares the hell out of me. i also always seem to grow bored of my gf's when the relationship gets past about 6 months, and the one time i actually lived with one for a year was absolute hell (though that was a small apt.)

[Blarg]

Someone I know wants me to marry her sister and bring her over from Vietnam. Said sister has a kid. I feel like I'm being asked to go to jail for 15 years.

[pepper123]

citizenship

[Blarg]

Of course. She's asking me for a huge favor to get her sister citizenship. But it's not just three years of a favor maybe another for paperwork and bureaucracy. If that kid gets taken as my responsibility, it's like asking me to go to jail for 15 years.