Married Couples’ Financial Lead Over Singles Is Getting Wider
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Here's your Money Briefing for Tuesday, August 16th. I'm Daniela Cheslow for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whelan. One of the biggest financial moves you can make may also be one of the biggest life decisions tying the knot.
People with one income versus people who can rely on two incomes are are able to build wealth much more slowly. So married couples are sort of accelerating that track while single people are really just trying to keep up.
That's Wall Street Journal reporter Julia Carpenter. We'll talk with her about why singles are under more financial pressure these days after the break.
It's better to be married than single in terms of your finances. And that's been a case for a long time. But thanks to inflation and rising home prices, the gap between married people and singles is widening. The Wall Street Journal's Julia Carpenter has been following this issue and she's here now. Hi, Julia. Hi, Daniela. Thank you for having me. I was struck by this recent statistic. The median net worth of married couples aged 25 to 34 years old was not twice or three times the median net worth of single households. You've reported that married couples had nearly nine times the net worth of single households in 2019. That's according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That is astonishing. And economists say the gap is only getting bigger.
What is behind this chasm?
There's a lot behind that gap. I mean, the things that maybe everyone is feeling, including married couples, things like inflation, increased prices on everything from gas to groceries, things like the hot housing market, rising home prices that we've seen are up 44%, according to Redfin, things that people feel on all levels. The difference is people with one income versus people who can rely on two incomes are are able to build wealth much more slowly. So married couples are sort of accelerating that track while single people are really just trying to keep up.
It's been a tumultuous past few years. We've seen the pandemic downturn, then a recovery, now inflation. Housing is at its least affordable since 1989. How does that influence the wealth gap between single and married people?
All of these things are making it more challenging for single people to reach these money milestones that are really key to building wealth in America. Things like homeownership, things like being able to save for retirement, things like having that emergency fund. These are all much easier to access for married couples. And I think especially looking at this data, it's interesting to me to see just how far single people are behind.
You've been speaking to some people about their finances and I hoped you could talk about one couple. It's a straight couple and the man told you he had $10,000 in credit card debt when he tied the knot in 2020. Then what happened?
So his wife-to-be at that point said, the worst part of having credit card debt is the interest. I don't want you to be affected by this interest. I have that money in savings. Let me pay it off for you. They called it the wifey bank. The wifey bank? Yes. And then he paid her back. And it's something like that. Having that partner who's able to do that for you is hugely influential.
The wifey bank gave him some very cheap debt. He also gave her something, you reported, when it came to child care. Is that right?
You know, Gabby, his wife, she's in PR and she has a very successful career in public relations. She said she's been able to be so successful because her husband, Pablo, has been there for her when she needs it.
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