When a friend of the family announced her engagement, my mom remarked that the bride was marrying well. “Was she marrying for money?” I asked my mom.
“I don’t think so,” my mom said. “She just happens to be marrying a guy that makes a lot of money.”
Marrying for Money
As my mom and I talked about the engagement, I wondered how many women still strive to marry for money. In this day and age, a woman can make just as much, if not more than, her partner. So how important is it for that partner to come from an affluent family or earn a high salary?
Women Who Marry for Money
My mom’s female friends earn much less than their husbands. Her friend’s children also earn far less than their spouses.
“To form a successful partnership, both spouses must share the same ideas about money,” my mom said. “They have to agree how to spend the money they earn.”
Financial Ground Rules
My mom didn’t marry for money, but she did want to stay home after her kids were born. My dad provided the means for my mom to quit her job, and together they set ground rules for that decision.
My mom and dad settled on two ideas:
- Purchase a modest home they could quickly pay off.
- Never live beyond their means.
If my mom wanted to stay home, she would have to watch over the family budget. My mom was more than happy to forgo shopping trips and other expenses for the pleasure of being a full-time stay-at-home mom.
Of course, I think things are a little different now. My mom and dad were married in the early 70s. These days women can make more than their partners, less than their partners or stay-at-home, and not make any money at all.
Marry for Love or Money
There are so many options available to women these days, but I wonder if marrying for money remains one of the goals. While women may not strive to marry a wealthy partner, do they seek to marry a partner that makes more than they do? Especially when that partner is a man?
Are the stereotypical, bread-winning roles of men important to women? If women want children, do they want a man who makes enough money to provide them the option of staying-at-home?
I am jealous of those who have wealth not the namby pamby few 100 million or a billion here or there in US Dollar. Real wealth as in close to US$ 200 Billion and above in Money (in family terms), there are such people, you just have to research and look for them, my boss's son married one of his workers a girl and she has one of the best life ever. She was diagnosed as being unable to conceive a child, a few million dollars later they have a healthy baby boy. My boss's son is worth in the deca-millionaire range, owning lots of commercial property, he can stop working anytime but because he does not need to work he spends more time with the family and they have the best of everything. I think the person / she marrying him was smart. And I have my regrets for not approaching him first. The introductions was done by a senior management person, she is his daugther and that person is also a millionaire but still pale in comparison to the guys wealth.
doI really think it's more about marrying someone you can wake up next to every morning. It matters more that they're smart with the finances they do have than how much they actually make. My husband and I are both professionals, and make decent money. I actually enjoy our more low-key vacations in the country even though we've been to fancy resorts in Hawaii. Money does not buy happiness and never will. Security is a lot more about how you spend the money you do have than how much you make.