No one gets married with the intention of getting divorced. However, unforeseen circumstances can happen, and even couples who started with seemingly solid relationships can find themselves divorcing in a number of years.
If you’re planning on getting married in the near future, you might want to do whatever you can to minimize your odds of divorce. Every few years, there seems to be another analysis claiming to have found the perfect age at which to marry to avoid divorce. But is there any truth to these claims? Here’s a closer look.
Is There Really a Best Age for Marriage?
Statistics Aren’t Everything
While it would be wonderful to know a magical age that guaranteed you’d never undergo divorce, that’s simply not the case. Marriage and divorce statistics can give you a broad look at trends in New Jersey and the rest of the country, but statistics aren’t people. You might wait to get married until you’re 30 and see your marriage fall apart within a year. Or you and your spouse might marry as teenagers and stay happily together for the rest of your lives.
In short, while trends and statistics can give you interesting insights, they aren’t something to build your life around. If you take a close, honest look at your relationship and discuss your options with your partner, you’ll be well on your way to making the decision that’s best for you.
However, statistics do suggest that getting married a little later than average — but not too late — might boost your chances of living happily ever after.
Different scientists have different analyses of available data. Ultimately, there’s no best age for getting married. If you want to increase your chances of a successful marriage, talk honestly with your partner and make a decision that suits both of you.
Divorce Stats: How Does New Jersey Stack Up?
Divorce Might Be Less Likely in the Garden State
If statistics are any indication, just being married in New Jersey might reduce your risk of divorce. While divorce rates are on the rise in the United States in general, New Jersey has the second-lowest divorce rate in the nation as of 2022. And while there’s no singular factor that determines divorce rates, the fact that many New Jersey residents wait a little longer than average to get married might have something to do with it.
As of December 2023, the median age for a first marriage in New Jersey was 29.9 years old for women and 31.4 years for men. That’s older than the median age in the majority of states: New Jersey women wait longer to get married than women in 43 other states, and New Jersey men wait longer to get married than men in 44 other states.
Why might waiting until your very late 20s or early 30s make divorce less likely? By the time people reach this age, they tend to have several qualities that make them well-equipped for a healthy and long-lasting relationship:
- They may have a better sense of themselves and what they want.
- They’re more likely to be established in their careers and financially stable.
- They often are more emotionally mature than younger people.
- They tend to have more realistic expectations of marriage and relationships.
Regardless of your age, if you’re going through a divorce, you need an experienced divorce lawyer to defend your rights. Call [MFR] Men’s & Fathers’ Rights Divorce Lawyers at (201) 880-9770 to schedule an initial case evaluation. We offer phone, video, and in-person meetings.
How Does Your Age Impact Your Divorce?
Your age might have some impact on the success of your marriage, but it’s far from being the most important factor. However, many age-related factors can shape your divorce:
Your Retirement Savings
In a divorce, you generally want to protect your retirement savings as much as possible. However, when you’re younger, your retirement accounts may be lower in value. Even if you are ordered to pay your spouse a portion of your savings, you have several more years — and possibly even decades — to rebuild. If you are closer to the age of retirement, you likely have considerably more in savings. However, if you’re ordered to pay a significant portion to your spouse, you might find that you don’t have enough to retire comfortably — and you also don’t have enough working years to rebuild your savings to a comfortable level.
The Ages of Your Children
Children can change your life for the better, but they can significantly complicate a divorce. With all other things being equal, a divorce with children will be more involved than one without. If you do have minor children, you and your spouse will need to decide on custody arrangements, child support, and visitation.
If you get divorced later in life and your children are grown, these considerations won’t be a factor. However, that doesn’t mean your divorce will automatically be uncomplicated. If you’ve accumulated significant shared assets, equitable distribution might become a drawn-out process.
The Duration of Your Marriage
If you and your spouse marry later in life and divorce soon after, the division of assets is likely to be less complicated. If you each came into the marriage with your own assets and didn’t have significant time to accumulate shared property, returning to the way you were before the marriage would be easier.
Imagine you and your spouse married right out of high school, built a life together, and are now divorcing in your 50s. Because most of your debts and assets are likely to be shared at this point, equitably distributing your marital property is a major undertaking.
Do You Need a Divorce Lawyer?
Few things are as painful as seeing your marriage fall apart. However, when you have the help of an experienced divorce attorney, you’ll receive the guidance and committed advocacy you deserve. At MFR, we represent men of all ages who are undergoing divorce.
If you want to see how we may be able to help you, call us at (201) 880-9770 for a confidential case evaluation.
