Shellenbarger on Marital Bliss: Three ways to improve your odds for a successful marriage

"LifeTwo columnist Laurie Israel recently posted "25 Secrets To A Great Marriage", which offered specific advice for getting over the rough spots in a marriage. But what about before you get married or in fact before you even meet your mate but want the best possible odds for a lasting marriage when it does happen? Wall Street Journal columnist and author Sue Shellenbarger tackled this in "What Makes a Marriage Last?" (see WSJ link below).

* Odds improve when couples first graduate from college, then get married, then have children, instead of taking those steps in a different order.

* Casual co-habitation might lead to marriages of convenience that later hit the rocks.

* Choose supportive workplaces where you are fairly paid and promoted. (The column suggests this helps avoid stressful workplace emotion from spilling over at home.)

She then asked for comments and at the time of this writing there were quite a few. Some made the valid argument of the possible confusion of cause versus correlation while others felt that the divorce process was either too easy or too hard (depending on their point of view).

WSJ (access might require fee)