Healthy AND Wealthy

Healthy: Research evidence suggests that marriage (1) reduces certain health risk behaviors (in particular, heavy drinking); (2) improves access to health insurance; and (3) improves mental health (in particular, reducing depressive symptoms). Therefore, it follows that marriage may also have benefits for physical health and longevity. Indeed, studies consistently show that married people live longer and enjoy better physical health than unmarried people. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/marriageonhealth/report.pdf

Wealthy: Divorce causes a decrease in wealth that is larger than just splitting a couple’s assets in half. By the same token, married people see an increase in wealth that is more than just adding the assets of two single people.On the other hand, divorce can devastate your wealth. Divorce drops a person's wealth by an average of 77%. Contrary to popular belief,the research shows that the wealth of divorced women wasn't significantly worse than that of divorced men, in terms of real money. If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married. - Jay Zagorsky, Ohio State, Journal of Sociology, Jan 2006