MARRYING FOR LOVE OR FOR MONEY?

If you're looking to be married any time in the near future, you may want to take a moment to honestly consider this question. 

Would you marry for love or for money? 

This has been keenly debated upon as different marriages in our contemporary society highlights one side of the divide over the other. It is not necessarily a question you would pose only to the marriageable generation of the present; it's one that begs critical reflection and a definite, unexaggerated response.

If you had to be in a relationship sooner or later, what would most likely be your relationship goals or priorities over a long term? Is love ever enough? How about money — is it key to sustaining a healthy and enjoyable relationship?

These questions will have no authentic answers as people are expected to be divided in their opinion, and that rules out the possibility of weighing in with a sound, definitive judgement. We're going to go into relationships with separate motives, and maybe with a clear picture of what we want out of them. For some, money replenishes love through time; for others, there's a margin of "what if" in marital relationships: what if you someday didn't have all that money, would your love, devotion, and respect be unspoiled? 

In between these conflicting views do we find a balanced (if that's permitted) position on the subject, and that's the belief that love and money are proportionately essential to making marriage or a relationship tick. 

   On a personal note, money is just as important as love, even if a part of me argues that, more love than money is the recipe for a lasting, functional marriage. We'll have to employ objective analysis of valid marital prospects, in the hopes we arrive at an acceptable conclusion. Consider two true-life stories.

I was raised in an average income home. 3 children by the time I got to second grade. We had most of what we wanted, and I say so because I had firsthand exposure to struggling families when my father walked me and my siblings to school. Talking about walking to school, neither of my parents owned a car, and I remember the rainy days during which we had to sit out school. All of the children with wealthier parents never had to skip school on such occasions. My mother decided to work two jobs to support my father, and it took until my fourteenth year before my father acquired his first car. A second had come as a gift to my supportive mother. It's fair to say love was at the heart of the patience and support my mother had shown through those years. An even more impressive demonstration of this love would come at a time when my father was ravaged by a crippling illness. He suffered a great deal, even lost his memory and eyes. There was so much compassion and strength about my mother from the onset, and she stood by him until his final breath. That's the kind of love that's for better or for worse. 

   20-year-old Regina Daniels, Nollywood actress, had begun her acting career as a child, and has enjoyed theatrical prominence at her young age. Not long ago, though, she caught attention when her engagement to Law graduate and politician Ned Nwoko, received vast publicity. While Nollywood enthusiasts lacerated the young movie star for marrying for money, we haven't heard the couple come out to say they're both unhappy in their domestic partnership. She's 20 and has a full life ahead of her,  borne a child for a man who's about 3 times her age.

 Not a lot of people would have learnt about her marriage without batting questioning eyelids. This is her decision, however you're inclined to look at it. 

"Is theirs a loveless marriage"? That's not for us to say. It makes her happy, or at least as far as it seems, and that's to be respected.

Love or money? Which qualifies as the wrong foundation upon which marriage is buit? Whether or not think love is a volatile feeling, or an oldfashioned notion; whether or not you prioritize your comfort and economic wellbeing over everything else, marry someone you love, someone responsible in every sense of the world. 

In your checklist, tick love. See if you can put the same check after money, too. In my opinion, you put money, time, and love if your relationship is going to thrive.