Cohabitation

I heard a statistic that kind of blew my mind and thought I'd share it with you all. Apparently it is in your favor not to live with your significant other before marriage. 57% of couples lasted 20 years or more if they didn't live together before marriage. This is compared o 47% of couples who lasted that long living together prior to their nuptials. I thought in modern days couples live together before marriage to find out if they are compatible on a whole new level. I would think they find the issues early on and determine if marriage is a good or bad decision with that specific person. Why do you think this is not the case? I mean, if you live together moving out is much easier than divorcing. I assume most people who live together before marriage make a better life choice with that person knowing them on a more personal level than those who don't live together before marriage. My only reasoning for this statistic is that those who don't move in together before marriage tend to be more traditional in nature and in life. To me, this means they are less likely to divorce their partner period. Living together first isn't a crazy idea but it definitely is more modern. Modern couples, I feel, are less likely to stay in a marriage for the sake of appearances or other's happiness. Of coarse, this is just my opinion.

In my case, I didn't live with my husband until after we were married. We didn't have the choice because we were in a long distance relationship. Heck, we didn't actually start living together until about year 3 of our marriage due to the military separation. We technically had an apartment together, but he was only really there on weekends. However, if living together before marriage was an option I honestly think we would have taken it. In the beginning stages of your committed relationship you want to be with that person 24/7, so living together is an answer to your prayers. That being said, I don't believe in spending every waking minute with your significant other. Before our wedding, we had our individual lives and interest stay a priority because what's the point of losing yourself? Don't get me wrong every weekend I had available I'd drive 6 hours to see him, but if we missed a couple of weeks it didn't hurt our relationship.

I'm not opposed to either idea, what works for you works for me. I just want more marriages to last 20+ years period!
EMM