Marriage might have been fine for your parents or grandparents, but of what value is it today?

Isn't it as more and more young people seem to be saying, just a piece of paper?

Well, it turns out that piece of paper might be the most valuable thing you will ever own.

Take the case of Doug Talby. At age 18, Talby worked a minimum wage job operating a press

at a factory in Indiana and lived in his parents' basement. I didn't have a care in the world,

Talby says. I didn't even have any bills. But after marrying at 19 and having kids, Talby's

perspective changed. I had to step up and think about others and start taking care of them.

Talby quit his factory job enjoying the army, where he made significantly more money and received

housing and healthcare paid for by the military. Whenever he saw a chance of promotion, he pursued it.

It meant more money and benefits for himself and his family, recently in a bid to further boost

his family's income. He left the army to work as a finance manager at a car dealership.

He's now pulling in six figures. Men who see no need to marry or who are reluctant to marry

until they make more money could benefit from Talby's discovery. Marriage is a transformative

effect on the behavior, emotional health, and financial well-being of adults, especially men.

Men who get married work harder and more strategically and earn more money than their

single peers from similar backgrounds. Marriage also transforms men's social world.

It's been less time with friends and more time with family. They go to bars less and a church

more. In the words of Nobo Prize-winning economist George Ackreloff, men settle down when they

get married. If they fail to get married, they fail to settle down. My own research barriers out

Ackreloff's view. Married men work about 400 hours more per year than single men with

equivalent backgrounds. A Harvard study also found that married men were much less likely than

their single peers to quit their current job unless they had another one lined up.

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