The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-03
Cost of Married Life

.
y to the young man who had wg,
put ring upon the finger "
the finest girl in the world" Il would
be the last one to say that marriage Is
a failure.
you have been an intimate COIN
panion OF my own children ever sip,e
you could walk and have grown up
within the circle Of my family. So FAR
as affection and happiness in home ne
, are concerned, you know that can
have no fault to find with either nv
wife or my children; and I have lived
| with the former twenty-five years and
have brought up the latter to past the
| twenty lone years which is accouu I'd
fun age
Few homes are so happy as m.n.,
and few men have such faithful w.,es
or good children. So far az my own
case is concerned, in an altruistic scnqe.
even IL not In a sordid sense marriage
has been far from a failure. But there
is a sordid side, and one should look at
the situation from every angle cepe-
c.ally since marriage is such an abd-
ing and important matter--or should hs
at least
THE day has gone by when poop's
even say, much less believe. THAI il
, costs no more to support two persons
than II does to care for one; and when
children are added the cost is increased
Now, To the man, the provder. what
does that mean in sordd dollars and
cents? Figure it for a moment in A
way that / have not seen mentioned in
any Of the numerous discussions OF the
subject.
when a man marries he assumes re-
sponsibility for feeding, clothing and
housing an extra person. Say two chill
dren come To bless the union. and no
more. That means three besides him
self Say the children grow to matur-
itY. and that for twenty-one years the
father has given of his means To care
for their physical welfare and 10 give
them fair education. and perhaps more
than that
1T means that he has supported three
persons for at least twenty years each,
or an aggregate OF sixty years in all
Perhaps when the children were little
babies it did not cost so much TO sup
port one Of them as 1t does to care for
an adult, but the necessities of later
years at least offset the saving on
babyhood days thus making an average
Of cost equal to the care OF an adult
during tle entire period
1T requires no argument to prove
that the dollar saved by man in his
early business life can have a value
higher than the hundred cents it repre-
sents intrinsically, because II can earn
other money for him If he will place ID
properly. Few men who marry before
their business success is assured Law
by money. and if they do it is certain
that they could lay by more il they had
but one mouth each to feed. one back To
clothe and one person to house, all other
things being equal. Whether the UNI
married man does save or not is beside
the question. lie could If he would
Assume that you. who intend. and I
do not say unwsely. to enter the mar
ried state, raise family and spend all
You earn because of the cost OF their
maintenance until You are fifty years
old Nou have been benefit to the
state and the community Of course es-
peCialy # you have trained your chill
drcn in the way they should go. But
you have not a dollar in the world a tho
time when your earning capacity i
lessening, and only a comparatively few
years in which to accumulate enough 10
support YOU in the old age that is com
ing so fast that you can hardly keep
track of The swift flight Of the years.
You may have a splendid family. | ac-
knowledge, but even splendid family
is not an asset nor, Of itself provision
for old age
THE inference is plain and the figures
accurate enough to go on. If you had
the money you have invested by that
time in 4 Commendabe for the sake Of
argument, but not paying proposition,
you could stop work when you reached
city years of age and live for the re-
mainder OF your life without attention
to business and in comparative ease, for
1t is practically certain that you would
not attain the advanced age of 40
years.
III it is argued that the premise that
one who maintains wife and Two chill
dren for twenty years does so at cost
per individual since they live in com
munity, aVerag ny less than the cost
Of maintaining one person alone there
Is still ample play room, Divide the
number of individual years of mainte-
nance in half and there would remain
thirty years of one persons keep which
should he in reserve. And this does not
take into account the accumulations of
interest or from investment that might
have resulted had the money spent been
saved and put to work. Add thirty years
of ability To maintain himself without
further effort to the fifty already passed
and there is the ripe old age of eighty;
thirty years during which the man need
not exert himself and during which he
could live upon his principal saved, not
made
Think it over, son. And after You
have given it fun consideration 20
ahead and get married without
thought of what it will cost you In the
way | have mentioned. If you should
save the money, being single, which you
spend because you are married and a
father YOU would be living the life Of
only half man and you would miss
measure Of pleasure and satisfaction
that money cannot buy nor years OF toll
compensate"