Marrying for Love or Money
According to a blog by Robert Frank on Yahoo! Finance, "In an infamous personal ad posted on Craigslist this summer, a twenty-something New Yorker who described herself as 'spectacularly beautiful' wrote that she was looking for a man who made at least $500,000 a year."
As you can imagine, the ad inspired a great deal of response, including one by an investment banker, who replied that "since his money would grow over time but her beauty would fade, the offer didn't make good business sense. She was, he said, a 'depreciating asset.'" In the quest to live "happily ever after", would you marry for love or money?
According to Mr. Frank, a survey was conducted by Prince & Associates, a Connecticut-based wealth-research firm. They polled 1,134 people nationwide with incomes ranging between $30,000 to $60,000 to find out "How willing are you to marry an average-looking person that you liked, if they had money?" Here's what they found:
- Two-thirds of women and half of the men said they were "very" or "extremely" willing to marry for money.
- 61% of men in their 40s said they would marry for money.
- The average "price" that men and women would demand to marry for money these days is $1.5 million.
The expectation of a successful marriage based on money appears to be lower for women than for men. The Prince & Associates survey showed that:
- 71% of women in their twenties who said they would marry for money also said they expected to get divorced - the highest of any demographic.
- Only 27% of men in their 40s expected to divorce.
While I understand the attraction of marrying someone wealthy - the feeling of economic security and stability - to me, it defeats the idea of finding your soul mate and marrying for love. It also negates the fact that women can be financially secure, building their careers and businesses without having to depend on anyone but themselves.
As you can guess, I vote for building my own financial independence first (and in the process, building confidence in myself that I can succeed in accomplishing my career goals), finding and marrying my soul mate, and then building our life together.
You can do it!
Lisa Quast
Career Woman, Inc. - "Your Future, Your Way"
Comments