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Younger wives, happier marriage


Faustian

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I guess most people kind of intuitively know this, via experience, but here's something that suggests quite big age differences are actually a good thing! But only if the man is 5+ years older.

 

Interesting indeed!

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8325579.stm

 

'Younger wife' for marital bliss

 

The secret to a happy marriage for men is choosing a wife who is smarter and at least five years younger than you, say UK experts.

 

These pairings are more likely to go the distance, particularly if neither has been divorced in the past, according to the Bath University team.

 

The findings predict a happy future for pop star Beyonce Knowles, 28, and rapper husband Jay-Z, 39.

The work is published in the European Journal of Operational Research.

 

The researchers studied interviews of more than 1,500 couples who were married or in a serious relationship.

Five years later, they followed up 1,000 of the couples to see which had lasted.

 

For better or worse

 

They found that if the wife was five or more years older than her husband, they were more than three times as likely to divorce than if they were the same age.

 

If the age gap is reversed, and the man is older than the woman, the odds of marital bliss are higher.

 

Add in a better education for the woman - Beyonce has her high school diploma, unlike husband Jay-Z - and the chances of lasting happiness improve further.

 

Those who have never divorced fare better too. But couples in which one member has been through a divorce in the past are less stable than those in which both members are divorcees.

Dr Emmanuel Fragniere and colleagues do say that men and women choose partners "on the basis of love, physical attraction, similarity of taste, beliefs and attitudes, and shared values."

 

But they say that using "objective factors" such as age, education and cultural origin "may help reduce divorce".

 

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Getting a wife who was smarter than me wasn't too much of a problem.

There's 14 years age difference but it's hardly noticeable to us.

Funny, I see guys up here walking around holding hands with much younger women and they won't look you in the eye, like they're ashamed of it. Can see problems coming there.

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There's a famous formula bouncing around the Internet, ascribed to various sources, which says a man should marry a woman whose age is equal to (half his own age) + 7 years. So a 40-year-old should marry someone who is (40/2)+7 = 27.

 

Intuitively, I find this formula satisfactory :content:

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<< The findings predict a happy future for pop star Beyonce Knowles, 28, and rapper husband Jay-Z, 39. >>

 

Except when he decides to beat the crap out of her. :hmmm:

??? but surely :boxing: and :spank: are key ingredients to a truly happy marriage, especially those of the bling-bling variety...

 

also, i'm relieved to learn i'm not the only artiste not to have a high-school diploma...

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<< The findings predict a happy future for pop star Beyonce Knowles, 28, and rapper husband Jay-Z, 39. >>

 

Except when he decides to beat the crap out of her. :hmmm:

 

Hey... why the cynicism? Of course this formula works, why, just look at Paul Mcartney and Heather Mills. Oh. Umm, how about Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra? Uh. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley???

 

Alright, alright -- what if you reverse it, say... Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau? They're happy. Right? It must work. You can't fight science man.

 

:tophat:

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