Staying married has its benefits. A new U.S.-wide study shows the wealth of a married person is almost double that of somebody who is single. "If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married. On the other hand, divorce can destroy your wealth," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study. Married people will see an increase in wealth that is more than just adding the assets of two single people, ac-cording to the study published in the Journal of Sociology. Those who remained together saw a 93 percent gain in wealth compared to that of a single person, while individuals facing divorce saw their financial situation worsen long before they finally divorced, according to Zagorsky. The study used data from surveys taken over a 15-year period involving 9,055 Americans who were between 21 and 28 years old in 1985. Those who remained single had a steady, but slow growth in wealth, from less than $2,000 at the start of the surveys up to an average of about $11,000 after 15 years. However, those who married and stayed that way showed a sharp increase in wealth after marriage, growing to an average $43,000 by the 10th year of marriage or by about 16 percent a year. For people who married and then divorced, there was a slow build-up of wealth during the early years of marriage and then a steady decrease about four years before divorce. The study also showed doubt about a common idea that divorce was much harder financially on women than on men. In fact, it showed that women suffered financially only slightly more than men. The passage is written for   _   to read.
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