Maybe a better place to start is to ask, What does a family need? There’s relational stability, like love, security, consistency. And economic stability, or a family’s ability to meet needs when it comes to housing, employability, and educational opportunity. How can a family reach the essentials? Research shows that the most stable homes include intact marriages — that a stable marriage, a two-parent home, is more likely to make way for economic stability.
Why? Like many families, we can begin with the wedding. Matrimony, in America in particular, has the potential to unlock an important economic bonus: the marriage premium. The idea is simple enough: Married couples, even before children enter the picture, tend to build more wealth than single people. And when the couple become pa