Sky-high rents, record-breaking student loan debt and stagnant wages have caused many millennials to delay marriage, children and home buying, studies show.
“We not seeing 20-somethings getting married, we are seeing 30-somethings and it’s still just as hard to stay married,” said Peter Walzer, the president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, or AAML.
The median marrying age is now 27 for women and 29 for men, up from 20 for women and 23 for men in 1960, according to the Pew Research Center.
However, postponing marriage does have its upside, according to Antonia Greenwald, a CPA and a director in the matrimonial services group at accounting firm Anchin, Block & Anchin.
“You are usually more stable later on,” she said. “Maybe you’ve paid down college loans, have a career or a retirement nest egg.
“Then you can make plans for the future.”
That worked for Leigh Ann Newman, 47. She and her husband, Cary, 61, have been married for nearly 20 years.
“When we met, I had a car loan, credit card debt and monthly expenses,” Newman said. “We had to make the decision to postpone our marriage a few months in order for me to make some financial changes.”
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