Opinion

MARTIN: Partners should live together before marriage

Many years ago, cohabiting with your significant other before marriage was thought of as unethical. 

Today, many young adults now make the choice to live with their significant other pretty early into the relationship. I personally believe that every relationship should get to this stage before marriage. 

The reasons why I believe you should live with your boyfriend or girlfriend are to test your compatibility and to also improve your way of living.

First reason you should live with your significant other is to see if you both can coexist and actually stand to be around each other. It is easy to say you love someone when you are not around them 24 hours seven days a week. I know for sure I would hate to marry a person that I can not stand when we are in the house together. Everyone has their tendencies that they lean towards at home. Living together gives you insight to your partner’s cleanliness, spending habits, and appetites. Maybe you like to clean up every three days and your counterpart only cleans on Sundays. Maybe your partner goes on shopping sprees every weekend. Also, it would be nice to know about your partner’s appetite. Everyone knows food can win over a heart.

The second reason why I believe you should live with your significant other before marriage is to improve your way of living. 

By this I mean you can both split spending expenses. Splitting bills, food expenses and home expenses can be a big positive in the relationship and in your own pockets. For the relationship it can build trust. Having your spouse carry their responsibility builds that commitment up as you would need in a marriage. 

The obvious reason that splitting expenses would be beneficial to each other’s pockets. 

According to a Pew Research Center study, many non-engaged cohabiters who want to get married someday cite finances as a reason why they’re not engaged or married. 

About three-in-ten cohabiting adults who are not engaged but say they would like to get married someday cite their partner’s (29%) or their own (27%) lack of financial readiness as a major reason why they’re not engaged or married to their current partner. About a quarter (24%) say their partner not being ready financially is a minor reason, and 29% say the same about their own finances.

I believe splitting finances can help  Money allows you to be able to do more in a relationship. More dates, more trips, more vacations to improve life together. 

Many reasons come into play why any couple should cohabit, but my reasons are to test your compatibility and to improve your living conditions. 

I will leave you with these two quotes to summarize my stance. One is by me and another is by Pope Francis. “Living together is an art, it’s a beautiful art, it’s fascinating”, said Francis. “Divorce costs more than moving out.”

– De’Vante Martin is a sophomore Mass Communication major from St. Joseph, La.