The Wall Street Journal ran a piece today on men and women who marry for money. The article cites a survey by a wealth-research firm that found that, in order to say "I do" for dough, men and women on average demand a potential spouse be worth $1.5 million. Just $1.5 million?! If you get half in the divorce, that's only $750,000. You couldn't even buy a hovel in Manhattan with that! Standards, people. Gold diggers, dig deeper!
I kid, of course -- but that is a surprisingly low rate. On the whole, men expect a sugar-spouse to be worth $1.2 million. Women in their 20s, however, require $2.5 million; 30-somethings ask for $1.1 million; and 40-somethings put the bar at $2.2 million. The WSJ explains the price-jumping thusly: "Thirty-something women feel more pressure to get married than women in their 20s, so they are willing to lower the price. By their 40s, women are more comfortable being independent, so they're willing to hold out for more cash." Funny, you'd think instead of lowering or highering their price, they might cave in and marry for ... love, or something.
The findings also dismantle the notion that money-grubbing is a female enterprise. Two-thirds of women and half of men were enthusiastic about the possibility of marrying "an average-looking person that you liked, if they had money." And as men age, they become even more comfortable with the idea of marrying a woman for money: 41 percent of 20-somethings were ready and willing, versus 61 percent of 40-somethings.
Now seems as good a time as any to revise those oft-quoted lines from Kanye West: "If you ain't no punk holla, 'We want prenup!'/ It's something that you need to have/ Cause when she they leave yo ass she they gone leave with half."
Shares