The top cities to move to if you want to get married and the cities where the Midas mindset is destroying relationships
Elizabeth moved to New York with a plan. After graduating from a top-ranked law school in the South, she’d landed a job as a young attorney at a Big Law firm.She was ready to start the life, at 25, she’d been dreaming of — not only working as a lawyer but dating with an eye toward marriage. She remembers thinking, “I’ve got my job, I’m in a city, I’m going to settle into like the rest of my life, so it makes sense to date.” Things did not go so smoothly.
The long hours were only part of the problem.Most of the guys in their 20s Elizabeth met in Manhattan were not interested in marriage. The men who did seem interested in marriage were older than she felt comfortable with.
New York was simply “a challenging dating place” because “people are often on different pages, whether it’s religiously, culturally” or relationally, as “some people are just there for a good time, and some are there to settle down.” It was hard to find a man who was a good match and interested in marriage. Elizabeth is like many students who graduate from elite colleges and universities.They are ambitious, smart, and attractive.
Their plan is to successfully launch their career in their 20, find their person in their late 20s or early 30s, and then get married in their 30s.But the primary focus in their 20s is on career — a “Midas mindset” that prioritizes professional success instead of love and marriage. For many students graduating from prestigious universities, this means moving to big cities such as New York, Los Angeles or Washington, DC, to work in finance, consulting, law, government, entertainment, and other industries. What they do not realize is that maximizing career prospects isn’t always good for your love life.
Location matters not just for professional opportunities, but also your odds of marriage.If you’re seeking to maximize your odds of tying the knot as a young adult (between 22 and 39), the best places to do that are not the b...