15 Perks of Getting Married in Your Early 20s (or Even Younger)
Remember when getting married in your early 20s was the norm? Now it seems like tying the knot young is a social faux pas that everyone is shying away from. First you go to school, then you graduate, establish a career, gain financial security, and then settle down with your SO. So where are the few who are defying the status quo? I searched them out, and I’ve found that there are actually many women in my life — whether they are friends from college, women I’ve worked with, or family members — who married young and have no regrets. So what is it about getting married young that has women saying “I do” before they even graduate college? I asked women who married between the ages of 18 and 23 to share what they believe to be the benefits of getting married at a young age and gathered their responses below:
- While you’re young you can enjoy the complete life adventure with your closest friend.
- You and your spouse are not set in your ways quite yet. You can mold and shape each other as time goes on.
- You learn to compromise as you approach some of life’s biggest decisions hand in hand.
- Support. When you’re starting your career or in school or moving every couple years, it’s so nice to have a cheerleader all the time.
- You’re unavoidably poor when you’re young, which helps you learn and gain financial stability together. When you start out with nothing, you learn to be grateful for anything.
- If you’re looking to start a family, reproductively your body is better equipped to have babies at a younger age.
- You’re used to making someone else your first priority.
- You celebrate many events and milestones together that people who marry later in life may not get the opportunity to.
- You grow up together.
- You let go of selfish habits before you develop them. It’s not always about where you want to go or what you want to see, and you learn to involve another person.
- You learn most everything together, both literally and metaphorically, and can help enhance each other’s education.
- You’ll both have more energy, whether that’s to work together, play together, or to chase after your kids together.
- Making plans for the future (for example, where you are going to live in the next few years, how many children you want, what kind of house you will buy, etc.) is easier because you’ve made the ultimate commitment and so you work as a unit.
- Your ambition and dreams don’t stop just because you’re married. You both get creative on how to achieve your personal and mutual goals.
- Marriage at a young age makes you both more accountable, to each other and to your individual goals.
The responses vary, but the consensus is the same: it truly doesn’t matter what age you marry at, young or old, if you’ve found the person you love and you’re ready to completely share your life with them.