Boat Tax Deduction

I’m not a particularly religious person so I really don’t see the point of marriage.

Why not just move in with your girlfriend? You can even get his and her’s commitment or promise rings if that floats your boat.

Marriage doesn’t guarantee commitment anyway.

If you just get engaged and never marry for example, you can have all of the benefits of marriage without any of the drawbacks such as a lengthy and costly divorce etc.

I can’t think of one practical benefit of marriage over a committed boyfriend/girlfriend relationship except for maybe some minor tax benefits.

You can live together.
You can be in a committed life long relationship.
You can make love and be in love.
You can even go to court to change your name if you’re hardcore.
You can have children etc…

If you are in a long term committed relationship and things turn sour, then you can move on with some dignity.

If you are married and things turn sour then you can either:
A) gets divorced and risk 1/2 your money, assets, pension etc…
b) Stay trapped in a loveless empty marriage until “death do you part”

Additionally, I happen to be in the military and if you are married to a woman for more than 10 years in the millitary, she can be legally entitled to 1/2 of your pension after your divorce (as if she did 1/2 of my deployments or something…. F&*# that!)

the concept of marriage seems obsolete in this day and age unless you are a devoutly religious person.

Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?

I really love her, but if she continues to insist upon marriage then I don’t think we can stay together because I don’t see any logical benifits of marriage over my current situation. I am so adamant about it that I would rather break up than be given an ulta matum like that.

As far as marriage goes: for the man, the cons far outweigh the pros.

Can anyone think of a practical benifit of marriage that I haven’t thought of?
I’ve tried communicating with her. She is pretty obstinate and it’s hurting the relationship. i don’t think I’m being unreasonable. She is insisting that we get the legally binding document and she refuses to accept an alternative. We are at a stalemate and I don’t see any way foreward. It’s not really about the money for me. I just think that a person being held legally liable for a relationship working is a bit much. Why can’t two people just be happy in a relationship without labeling it.

I’ve offered to buy her a “commitment ring” as a symbol of my commitment but it’s just not good enough for her. She wants a wedding.
I guess you have a point. It’s just pretty sad because we were both really happy before she started with all this “marriage talk”. Part of me just wishes she could have left well enough alone. the bottom line is that she wont be happy unmarried and I wont be happy married so maybe it’s best to just go our seperate ways.

Alot of you are calling me a “pig”…. So be it. If not wanting to be legally bound to stay in a relationship until I die makes me pig then so be it.

I know this though… There are alot of “nice guys” who got married and went on 1 year deployments only to come back a find that things changed. Alot of nice guys are living on half a pension while their ex wives are living it up on the money that they bled for.

I also know alot of “nice guys” who are trapped in loveless marriages because they don’t want to go through an ugly divorce.

maybe being a ‘pig” isn’t so bad.

the bottom line is that people change and love doesn’t come with gaurantees.