As soon as we hear or think about living together with our partner before marriage, here are some of the questions that come up in our minds apart from making love 24×7:

Is Cohabitation Still Linked to risk for divorce?
Is premarital cohabitation Linked to higher divorce rates or low marital quality?
Is Living Together Before Marriage Good or Bad?
Does Living Together Before Marriage Helps with marital quality?
What does it mean for Your Relationship?
Should You Live Together Before Marriage?
What are the disadvantages of living together before marriage?
Is there anything else you should know before deciding to live with your partner (beliefs about marriage)?
Should you live together before marriage(Cohabitation before marriage)?
Should You Move In Together or Not?
Is it even A Good Idea?

and many more…..

Living together before marriage can lead to some pretty awkward situations – especially if you’re talking about two people who haven’t even kissed yet. But what’s the big deal, anyway? Why can’t you live together and not date? You can, and here’s how:

Many people look forward to moving in together before they get married. It gives the romantic partners more time to get to know each other and learn how to live together before they get married. There are many benefits of living together, such as saving money, having each other’s back, and working out who needs more sleep.

Premarital cohabitation can be a great way to test the waters before committing to a long-term relationship. It allows you to sample the waters before you dive in headfirst with a partner, and it can help you prepare for your new family unit.

This year, more people are getting married than ever before. While it is a beautiful, special day, it is also a big day for your finances. Having your own place can be expensive—so much so, that many couples consider living together for a while before getting married. It may seem like a good time to get a roommate, but is it?

Studies, findings, reasons, surveys, variables all don’t work as expected when it comes to marital satisfaction or divorce risk. Some cohabiters are very satisfied and some cohabiters are not. Successful marriages can come out of living together or maybe living together for the first time.

Advantages:

Do you know what living together before marriage can do for your relationship? It can make you emotionally attached and emotional intimacy additionally contributes to relationship quality, which is good for your relationship. Living together can also give you a chance to learn each other’s likes and habits, and to check out each other’s friends and family.

Some people have been living together for a few months, and others have been living together for a few years. While a few people may have a bad time living together, most people end up having a much better time living together. It allows testing compatibility, tolerance, and other factors necessary for a couple to work out in the long run. As marriage is a much more serious affair than a relationship, it needs to have solid grounds to last forever.

Live-in makes a couple understand how much they need to make changes in themselves to cope up with the other’s lifestyle. It is a chance of increasing the understanding quotient with the one you have decided to spend your life with!

In the past, most people who chose to live with their significant other before marriage were those who believed that marriage would not last, and thus were convinced that going through a period without a ring would help them better understand each other and the importance of love. But marriage today is a different story. While there may still be a significant number of people who view living together as a trial run, a design to see if a real relationship is a good idea before they decide to wed—the majority of couples today choose to live together before marriage because they want to spend as much time together as possible.

However, it has its own set of disadvantages as well.

Disadvantages:

Today, people are living together with much different motives than they used to. Couples are moving in together much earlier before they even get engaged. This gives them the freedom of not committing, even when they spend so much time together. Being physically, mentally, financially involved only to go separate ways is not healthy but is, unfortunately, becoming common.

Financial involvement is one such major demand that living in demands. If things go wrong and a couple splits, one has to keep in mind the losses one would face financially. Though at the moment it seems all fair and not important, somewhere somehow it makes one regret moving in together at all.

David and Sam met five years ago and have been inseparable ever since. They have a comfortable, modern apartment together and a good job. They’ve been a couple a long time, but they still haven’t married. For a long time, they assumed that was just how things were going to be. After all, they loved each other. So what’s the problem? The problem remains commitment. Through live-in, commitment issues have been treated with negligence. It might seem like the perfect short-term fixture for any relationship, but in the long run, it might become a bit difficult to deal with.

Until recently, being together before marriage was considered an advantage(a step toward marriage) because it gave you the chance to sort out all the kinks that come with being in love. You would have plenty of time to see if you could live together peacefully, and if not, you would have time to find a fixer-upper. But in recent years, it has been looked down upon. A man gets to satisfy his sexual needs and as a patriarchal society, he is never to be blamed while the woman gets the bad name.

Living together can be a very exciting time, but it can also be tricky. Here are some practical tips to help you through this exciting time.

Before we get started, this needs to be cleared that the article does not talk about why people should or should not live together before they get married (remember, we’re not here to judge). Rather, we’re here to talk about the boon and bane of living together.

Statistics:

While words, experiences, people may lie, the one thing that we can rely upon is Stats. Let us have a look at some of the statistics of living together:

Over the same period, the share of adults who are living with an unmarried partner has risen from 3% to 7%. (pewresearch.org)

78% of those ages 18 to 29 say it’s acceptable for an unmarried couple to live together, even if they don’t plan to get married – but majorities across age groups share this view. (pewresearch.org)

About six in ten married couples (58%) say things are going very well in their marriage; 41% of cohabiters say the same about their relationship with their partner. (pewresearch.org)

Older studies from the 1960s, 70s and 80s found that couples who live together before marriage are more likely to divorce.[1] (lifehack.org)

But as the rate of premarital cohabitation ballooned to some 70 per cent, “its association with divorce faded.(theatlantic.com)

According to the National Center for Family and Marriage Research, between 1965 and 1974, only 11 percent of women lived with their partner before their first marriage.(brides.com)

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 8.5 million unmarried couples lived together in 2018 (they didn’t count same-sex couples in that number).(womenshealthmag.com)

A survey of over 12,000 heterosexual women aged 15-44 between 2006 and 2010 showed that approximately half (48 per cent) of women cohabitate before their first marriage (Copen, Daniels, & Mosher, 2013). (psychologytoday.com)

Cohabitation in the United States has increased by more than 1,500 per cent in the past half-century (nytimes.com)

My thoughts

Married couples go through a lot over years, but premarital cohabitation gives us a clearer picture, what lies ahead. A romantic relationship has very little to contribute towards marital quality or successful marriages but it can be considered as a step toward marriage or commitment to marriage. If we talk about levels of commitment or interpersonal commitment, then yes, premarital cohabitation contributes a lot to it.

Covering all sides of the Living Together before Marriage topic, it is safe to say that this has risen rapidly in the last decade. Though there are numerous disadvantages, we are happy for the couples who go beyond the difficulties and give their relationship a name. For those who stay together without ever getting married, as long as you’re happy there’s nothing to bother about. We are people belonging to the 21st century; it is finally time to stop society dictating what your life is supposed to be like. Chose wisely!

This article is co-authored by Shivangi Chatterjee.