Thursday, December 26, 2013

Just three decisions will make a life time of difference

Just three decisions can change the course of a life time and family. None depend on party affiliation, race or religion.

"Consider three decisions that young people make: at what points to stop their education, begin work, and marry and have children. Brookings Institution calculations of census data for 2009, a deep recession year, show that adults who graduated from at least high school, had a job, and were both at least age 21 and married before having children had about a 2 percent chance of living in poverty and a better than 70 percent chance of making the middle class — defined as $65,000 or more in household income. People who did not meet any of these factors had a 77 percent chance of living in poverty and a 4 percent chance of making the middle class (or higher)."

http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2012/03/29-middle-class-myth-haskins

There is no transfer of wealth or invasive, snoopy government program required for this vast difference in poverty between the married and unmarried, the employed and the unemployed, the high school graduate and the drop out. It won't close the "income gap" between you and the President, who is a millionaire and actually did these 3 things, but it's almost a guarantee with God's blessings that you won't remain at the bottom.

"The average cohabiting union lasts about two years, with roughly half ending in marriage. Once married, formerly cohabiting parents have a much higher dissolution rate than couples who did not live together prior to marriage." http://www.clasp.org/.../publications_states/files/0086.pdf

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