Why You Should Wait to Get Married Until After Your Mid 20s

Nowadays, you hear of teens rushing to the altar right after High School graduation, with their High School sweetheart in tow. However, over half of these young marriages will end in divorce—most of them never making it past the one-year mark. Recent studies suggest that the best times to get hitched are in your mid to late 20s, or even later in your early to mid-30s—but why? Read on for a few reasons to wait for marriage, even when you feel hopelessly, madly in love at 18.

Establish a Long-Lasting Commitment Beforehand to Ensure a Long-Lasting Commitment Afterwards

If you don’t have a long-term commitment before marriage, there’s a big chance you won’t have a long-term commitment after marriage. And those four years of High School DO NOT count. Neither does that psychic love reading you had when you were in middle school. Why? Because that’s not the real world. You have to live with someone, get to know their quirks and differences, reconcile with their habits, and then decide if those things are what you want to spend the rest of your life dealing with. No piece of court-ordered paper is going to solidify a commitment that was never there to begin with.

Experience Your Teens and 20s Completely, with Fun, Exploration, and Excitement 

Your teens and 20s are meant to be experienced with fun and exploration. You are meant to travel, fulfill some bucket list dreams, and have exciting experiences that you can talk about in your old age. These years aren’t meant for marriage, because a serious, long-term marriage rarely has room for the fun and carefree exploration that could have been in your late teens and early 20s.

You Shouldn’t Feel Like There’s a Rush to the Altar

The bottom line and best argument against young marriage is—there’s no rush to the altar, and you shouldn’t feel like there is. Anyone that genuinely, truly loves you will wait for you to be settled in a long-term, surefire commitment before asking you to walk down the aisle. Live and love, yes. Commit yourself to a sweetheart if you want—but don’t let young love tell you that you need or must get married. There’s no rush.