Divorcing Debt
How marriage changed my relationship with money
Dec. 22nd, 2020 marks one year since I married my husband — a feat which I felt certain until the very moment that it happened that I would never accomplish.
I have always had a skeptical view of marriage and relationships, driven largely by the poor example I grew up witnessing and the instability my parents’ respective undoing had on my family and my childhood. Marriage never seemed like a beautiful lifelong journey you embark on with a partner, but rather a thing you were supposed to do — like going to college, buying a home, or having kids. And, true to my persistent and unshakeable stubbornness, I have never been much inclined to do things I am supposed to.
However, when I exchanged vows with my partner of nearly a decade in December 2019, a kernel of something yet unknown began to unfurl within me. After years of dubious regard for the sanctity of marriage, I experienced an altogether surprising and unexpected shift.
Partners or Roommates?
According to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 10,000 American adults, nearly 78 percent of married respondents said they feel closer to their spouse than any other adult in their life — compared with just 55 percent of cohabiters. And, when it came to the driving factors…
