Most people have a very…”optimistic” view of marriage, and no one likes being the bearer of bad news. However, there are some harsh realities that many people do not want to look at or acknowledge when tying the knot, and, well, someone has to be the one to rain on the collective parade.
The truth is, when you get married, you will ultimately lose a healthy chunk of your freedom, even if you are in a relationship that closely resembles marriage already. Once that legal and spiritual bond is made, the game changes immensely. Now, your finances and that of your spouse are tied as well, and any mistakes that you or your significant other make now affect both of you. For example, some matters require both of you to be present, such as getting a loan in some cases, which requires both of you to take time off work. Prior to marriage, it was a far less complicated affair that required only you to manage your finances, and now time at work as well.
Of course, because of this, your opinion is not the end-all-be-all that it used to be. Everything you do impacts another person intimately. Finances aside, something as simple as deciding where to go for vacation is suddenly complicated by the desires of your spouse as well as your own. Got offered a better job that requires you to relocate? Better ask your spouse if that is okay, or you could find yourself filing divorce forms in shortly thereafter, and taking that new job in a new place by yourself. Fancy living in a certain area? Better not make that call alone, or you might find yourself alone as well.
As much as people do not like to hear about it, the truth is that, although money does not buy happiness, it sure can go a long ways. When money is tight, so is the tension within a relationship. Although many people are able to make it through these issues, and indeed grow closer as a result of facing that adversity together, there is also a large amount of the population that cannot make it through that rough patch. To make matters worse, when you are married, in most cases you see less of your paycheck since you are combining the amount and allocating the funds within to prepare for long-term goals, which, although things may not have actually gotten more difficult financially, it can certainly seem that way.
Worst of all, statistically, most married people have been in a relationship in which infidelity has occurred. No one likes to think it can happen to them, but sometimes, the irreconcilable differences stated in people’s divorce documents are as a result of finding out that one spouse had not been as faithful as the other spouse. It is not an issue that dooms a marriage, but a significant amount of the time, it can be a monumental obstacle to overcome.
If any of these happen to have been a part of your story, then you know all too well that on some levels, each of these elements come into play sooner or later, and sometimes, though no one likes it, it does sometimes end in a divorce.
Divorce can be a very taxing experience to have to endure. Fortunately, as technological and societal advances have been made, convenient solutions have been made to reduce the financial and emotional challenges faced in the process. Some of these new resources are online divorce papers, therapy, counseling and social support groups. Albeit, these advances do not eliminate the inevitable hardship that splitting ways brings. They do, however, soften the blow in many areas of the process.