David Brooks: A Good Marriage is Equal to Doubling Your Income

David Brooks, one of the better columnists out there was interviewed by Alec Baldwin a few months ago on the Here’s the Thing podcast.  It’s a really interesting interview.  The entire thing is here but below is my favorite 4 minutes of the interview is where he talks about the book he wrote and why it’s so important to choose a good spouse.

The first few seconds of this clip below is about his book is about why kids drop out of high school. He found in his research that you can tell in the first 18 months of kid’s life whether they will or not.  Apparently, kids who can form attachments at an early age can form emotional attachments with teachers and peers later in life and they’ll generally be okay.  If you can’t, life if very frustrating.

The second part of this short clip he shares some of his thoughts on marriage.  I found it interesting to hear that he goes around and tells people, “If you have a great career and a crappy marriage, you’ll be miserable. If you have a crappy career and a great marriage, you’ll be happy.”  I like the thought of that.  If this is true, then all the courses you should take in college should be about who you should marry.

He then talks more about happiness and makes the point that money only correlates a little to happiness and that studies have shown that, of people who are happy, they have a good marriage and that the happiness gain of a good marriage is equal to that of doubling your income.

The link to listen to the pod is here

This may be why I was so willing to quit my job in 2009 – because I was about to get married.

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2 thoughts on “David Brooks: A Good Marriage is Equal to Doubling Your Income
  1. Interesting clip. I have no doubt a good marriage is equal to at least doubling your income as far as happiness goes. Only I’d argue that the classes shouldn’t be about who to marry but how to be married. I think it’s the commitment to truly appreciate each other (and show it) every day, even on the days when your career feels crappy or whatever, that makes for a “double your income” type of marriage 🙂

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