What is the point of being married?

spender

I just love being "married". Can't explain it, would not love him less if we just lived together but I can look at him and think that is my husband.

POPPYOSCAR

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I totally disagree. Any relationship needs work and sometimes yes you have to work hard.

Not every relationship does.


I cannot say we have had to work at ours.

p00hsticks

*~Zephyr~* wrote: »

Our modest little home and our combined assets are never going to be anywhere near £325k. If we win the lottery, then IHT will definitely become a factor, but a little house in Wales? Never going to be worth enough to worry about.

But as I said earlier - please double check that you aren't leaving your partner worse off on your deaths in regard to your private pensions than you would be if you were married - would they be eligible for a "spouse's" pension ?

Torry_Quine

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Not every relationship does.


I cannot say we have had to work at ours.

Obviously I don't know your relationship and leave it there.

On a general note though unless you totally agree about everything or one person just agrees then it takes work to come to compromises form little things like what to have for supper to where will we live.

Kaye1

No particular reason for me. I just wanted to mark the fact that I intend the spend the rest of my life with the man I adore. For me, it was the ceremony which was important. The party was nice but not the main event.


I wanted to be his 'wife' not his partner/girlfriend.


Tell his family to mind their own! You sound as if you have it all covered.

fivesquare

*~Zephyr~* wrote: »

That would be a shame, because there IS a need for CPs. Holland and New Zealand have them for hetero couples, so I'm hopeful that we will follow suit.

Canada has them too - for both hetero- and homosexual couples. They call them 'common law' partnerships - but they don't come with the same rights (and obligations) as marriages. And laws vary by province.

http://www.commonlawrelationships.ca/canada/

Buzzybee90

I thought you paid less tax if you were married.

Obviously I'm wrong lol

TBagpuss

It depends on your situation. One of the advantages is that you can move assets from one to the other without incurring CGT, and that can be useful if you have income creating assets *and* one of you earns more, as it can allow you to juggle things so you both stay basic rate tax payers, and take full advantage of both GCT allowances etc. How much of an advantage this gives you depends on your financial position.

Being married can be an advantage if circumstances change and you overlook updating documents such as wills or declarations of trust for a property.

I think the best reason to get married is that you want it - you don't have to justify it. Deciding you like the idea of having a husband rather than a boyfriend, or feeling silly describing someone as a boyfriend/girlfriend when you are in your 30s/40s/50s are perfectly good reasons to do it, particulrly given that you already have a strong and lasting relationship.

barbiedoll

It's hard to explain but there's something about being married that "legitimises" your relationship, not just in a legal sense.

My husband and I both felt very strongly that we wanted to be married to each other. I had previously been in a bad marriage years earlier, I never thought that I'd want to be married again. My husband had lived with his ex for over 16 years, I know that she would have liked to marry him (she used his surname for years) but he wouldn't even consider it apparently. (Obviously, I've only got his word for this but he has no reason to lie about it!)

Lots of my friends are happily unmarried and in long-term relationships and there's no reason to believe that marriage will make your relationship any better in any way, shape or form whatsoever. But the fact that you'd quite like to have him as a "husband" says it all. If you want to be married, then get married!

phill99

There is no point in getting married. Just find someone you don't like and give them half of everything you own.