In today’s media, Millennials are often the focal point of discussion, and not always in the best light. Several questions revolving around Millennial’s have been the talk of the news for quite sometime now. Most of the time these questions or statements are bashing the Millennial generation, but there are a few that are quite interesting. These include: why children are being seen for more attention disorders, or why adults are less likely to own their own homes. However, in this article, I will be concentrating on why Millennial’s are less likely to get married between the ages of 18-25 compared to other generations. As a millennial, I’m shocked by some of the troubles faced by my generation. At first, when I began researching this topic I was baffled by the fact that millennials were getting married later in life. However, the more research I did, the more I was able to realize that there are many factors affecting this choice amongst my generation.
An article posted by Business Insider states, “Couples who get hitched today create a partnership that looks totally different from their parents’ and grandparents’ — from their wedding to their commitment of monogamy.” I found this statement rather interesting, why is my generation putting off commitment? This article listed several intriguing reasons, ranging from pre-marital sex, online dating, cohabitation, and interracial or interfaith marriages. An article posted by Bustle claims that “Many Millennials were raised with rising divorce rates and broken homes, so they’re far less likely to buy into marriage as the only or best form of relationship for themselves.” Because Millennials tend to have increased financial struggles, it makes sense that they would put off such a large monetary commitment, and aren’t buying into marriage. Millennials don’t view marriage as something they need to do right away, because of our hookup culture and astronomical amounts of student debt. Many millennials think marriage is important, and they want to grow happy families, but it’s not their top priority, like it was for many other generations.
From the time when the Silent generation was entering into adulthood to the adulthood of the Millennial generation, the U.S. has undergone many societal and cultural shifts. Many Americans are becoming detached from major institutions such as political parties, religion, the military, and marriage. However, there are reasons these detachments have occurred. Societal changes such as the changing of racial and ethnic makeup, to college attendance, to women joining the armed forces, the Millennial generation is causing changes that the Silent generation would’ve never expected to happen, but had hoped to see. In a Pew Research Article “How Millennials today compare with their grandparents 50 years ago,” authors Eileen Patten and Richard Fry dig down deep into some factors that are leading to the decline in marriage amongst our generation. The first point they give is that this generation is much better educated, especially amongst women, although not limited to. Because marriage is seen as a financial agreement now, rather than a ‘Happily-ever-after,’ women and men are getting married after they are already financially dependent on their own. Because marriage is ‘no longer defined by sexual rights but rather in terms of economic rights and consequences, it is distinguished from non-marital cohabitation by its implications for property division, pension, housing, fiscal and inheritance benefits, as well as by greater entry and exit costs’ (Smith 203). The financial agreement that marriage has become is what is scaring many Millennials away. When non-married cohabiters separate they can simply take their belongings and move along, however in a marriage if their is no prenuptial agreement the separation process can be long and messy. Millennials are choosing to avoid the mess of a divorce and are choosing to indulge in premarital relations and cohabitation.
Although there are many financial stressors put on Millennials from college debt, there are many financial benefits that come with getting hitched. An article posted on The Knot gives a list of many benefits granted to newly-weds, which I will discuss below. The taxation benefits to being married are some of the most important benefits. The marital tax deduction is the biggest tax benefit a married couple can receive. This is because the deduction allows one to transfer any of their assets to their spouse at any time, free of taxes. Even if you are to leave something in or of your estate to them, it will be free from estate or even gift taxation. Getting married and filing taxes jointly is actually something that may benefit or hurt a couple. This is because if both spouses have a high-paying job they could end up paying much more in taxes each year. Opposed to a couple with one lower-income salary or a stay-at-home spouse. In this case, it would benefit the couple to file jointly. Some of the financial benefits to tie-ing the knot are Social Security benefits, Prenuptial Agreement benefits, as well as IRA benefits. The Social Security benefit is pretty nifty, because if one spouse isn’t able to qualify for Social Security once they’re 62 or older, they may qualify to receive the other spouse’s benefits. The benefits coming from the prenuptial agreement are mostly to benefit couples in which one spouse worked and the other stayed at home raising the kids. This agreement is set to protect both spouses from losing everything they have, by splitting their assets between the two, incase of a separation. The IRA (Individual Retirement Account) benefits allows for a living spouse to receive their deceased spouses’ IRA, or can allow the working spouse to transfer some of their funds into the non-working spouse’s IRA. There are also some health benefits that come hand-in-hand with being married. These include health insurance benefits, and leave benefits. As all American’s know, it is extremely important to have health insurance. In a marriage, spouses are able to get family rates, if their employer’s do not already offer them health insurance. As for leave benefits, this allows a spouse to take off of work if a spouse or family member of a spouse is sick or deceased.
No longer defined by sexual rights but rather in terms of economic rights and consequences, it is distinguished from non-marital cohabitation by its implications for property division, pension, housing, fiscal and inheritance benefits, as well as by greater entry and exit costs.”
Because of modern-day technologies and dating apps, I was curious to find out if people are still meeting their forever spouses at college. According to a USA Today article presented in 2013, survey read that not many women were going of to college to earn their ‘MRS’ anymore. Instead, they are focussing on getting an undergrad, masters, and a steady job before getting married. The article used a survey provided from Pew Research, which stated that women were about 27, and men are around the age of 29 when they said their ‘I Do’s.’ This means that if they had met at college, they were still waiting several years after their college graduation to celebrate their love, but that there were many couples that had met in their undergraduate years of college.
In conclusion to my research, I would say that although the millennial generation faces many struggles, such as college debt, it is very realistic to still get married at a young age and there are many benefits that are offered to them. If millennials these days are in fact so concerned about themselves, and living the lives they want to live, they should be awakened to the many benefits that come hand-in-hand with matrimony. It is time that Millennials stop letting the media world stomp all over them, and take charge! We are the generation that can make change. We already have more women attending University, and we are discovering things other generations have been searching for for years. I would say, if a millennial couple wants to get married, they should. Set aside the worries of financial barriers, hold a smaller and more quaint wedding for family and friends to attend, and get married. In the end, marriage is about spending your life with the person that makes you happy, not the big fancy wedding with 500 of your closest acquaintances. As mentioned previously in this article, there are many benefits to tying-the-knot, so if you’re ready…go for it!
INTS 249: Digital Literacy 