SHOULD I MARRY MY CARETAKER TO AVOID PAYING OVERTIME?

Don’t laugh.  I’m not going to dig up any legal authority for this, but I think we can all agree that, historically, spouses have been very economical choices for fulfilling household duties.  Not to mention the other benefits…

And household help is getting more expensive.  (Or at least it should be, if you are following the new laws.)

WHEN SHOULD I START WORKING ON A PREMARITAL AGREEMENT?

YOU’RE IN LOVE

Aw February, the love month, when flowers and chocolates flow like promises.  Except that your promises won’t rot and die like the flowers or get crunched in half and eaten whole like chocolate.

At least that is the plan.   Believe me, I love that plan.  I’ve got the same plan going myself so hooray and many happy returns to us.  And, so far, things are looking our way.  We made it past the December/January mine fields, the most popular months for breaking up.    So, love is in the air, and everything is perfect.  Except the statistics.  The statistics are not perfect.

HOW CAN I LEGALLY HAVE TWO WIVES?

You want two wives? This is an interesting question. Until I wrote this post, in 2013 I assumed that most men would enjoy having one wife and one or two mistresses more than being legally responsible for two full-fledged wives. However, clearly I was wrong. This is by far my most popular post-- which means that lots, and lots of you are typing the heading into search engines. 


Well, I always knew my readers are an extraordinary bunch and you are not most men. (If you are even a man at all— See my post on the latest laws regarding homosexual marriage.)

DO I NEED A PRE-MARITAL AGREEMENT IF I LOVE MY FIANCÉ?

What do you think it means to get married (or register as domestic partners)? Most people think that it is their very loud (and sometimes very expensive) way of announcing to the public at large that they won’t be sleeping around anymore.

SHOULD I MARRY MY BOYFRIEND OF TEN YEARS?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to break the bad news that there is no common law marriage in California. For those of you who don’t know what that is, common law marriage is when simply living together for a certain amount of time and holding each other out to the public as married makes it so.
But it doesn’t in California. Here you must be married to have the rights of a spouse and they are important rights! Spousal support is the first thing, but it isn’t the last. Let’s say snookie-poo and honey-pie are living happily ever after. Who needs legal documents when you have love? They have some kids and snookie-poo decides to stay home for five or six years while the babies are young. After a couple of years they decide their little apartment is cramped and so they go house shopping. What could be more dreamy than two kids playing in the front yard of your very own home?