Marrying young...however you define "young" nowadays

On this day 70 years ago (April 18, 1951), my parents got married.

Mom had just turned 19 a week earlier, while Dad was all of 21. At the time, it was not unusual to be married at those ages.

Fast forward 41 years to June 6, 1992. That was the day Terry and I were married. She was 23 and I was 22. I had just graduated from college a few weeks earlier. That's us in the photo above.

Again, while we were probably younger than most people becoming husband and wife back then, it's not like we were inordinately young for the early 90s.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average age for a first marriage in 2020 was 28.1 for women and 30.5 for men. What's more, fewer than 30% of Americans ages 18-34 are now married, vs. nearly 60% as recently as 1978.

Clearly, young people in this country are not in a rush to put a ring on it. At least not any time soon.

I'm not saying this is good or bad. It just is.

By the time Terry and I tied the knot, we had been together for more than six years. I had decided long before that she was The One, and she had clearly decided that, for all of the warning signs of what lay ahead for her, she was willing to tie her fortunes to me.

It's not like we met when we were 20 and got married a year or two later, which was common in our parents' generation. We knew each other really well and were great friends in addition to being a couple.

As we approach our 29th anniversary, I would say it worked out pretty well for us. I know others our age with similar stories.

All of which is to say that whatever the demographic trends are, being "too young" to marry is a pretty subjective thing. I got engaged when I was 18 and had people tell me that was nuts and that we should wait a bit. I knew they were wrong.

Others are clearly not ready to enter into a long-term commitment when they actually do, and more often than not, those unions end in divorce.

Maybe it's good that people are waiting until they're more financially and emotionally stable before taking the plunge nowadays. All I know is, I was basically a kid when I got married and it's still the best decision of my life.

Your results may vary.