Your Ideal “Engagement Age”…
by roxanne on 02/17/10 at 11:30 am
This one if for the ladies (and men) who like their romantic timetables…I admit I was one of them. In fact when I was in college I had decided I wanted to be married by age 25. It was older than the most of my Baylor coeds, but gave me time to finish law school before starting the new chapter.
Well 25 came and went, and Roxanne at 25 was no where near being married or even engaged. In my late twenties, I dabbled in the, “I never want to be married” phase-men aren’t the only one who go through that. You know, the ‘I will date a lot but not get serious about any of the guys’. I will leave those fun nuggets for another time.
Now at 30, (pushing 31) my mindset has changed. Now I am open for either. If I find the right one and he finds me and we decide to make it official and maybe even have some kids, then great. But if my family if meant to be me and my extended family and my friends, then I will spoil my nephew, give my time to charity, and have a full life.
So sitting from my ‘Content perch’, you can understand that when statisticians (my dad happens to be one btw) declare they have devised a new formula that predicts the ideal age couples should get engaged, naturally IÂ (a) Have to read on and (b) am skeptical.
The equation considers how old you are when you start looking for a life partner — and the absolute oldest you want to be to tie the knot.
Just how accurate is this formula? 40 percent.
Here’s what the statisticians say: “Applying math to matters of the heart is always a dangerous prospect…In human life when you’re dealing with emotions you have to think much harder. But if you want to work out the right moment to start getting serious, this actually gives you a mathematical framework to think about it.”
Are you ready? Here is the equation:
1. Choose the oldest age by which you want to get married, for example, 39. Call this ‘n.’
2. Decide the earliest age at which you’ll start to consider a potential spouse, for example, 20. This age becomes ‘p.’
3. Subtract ‘p’ from ‘n’ (39 – 20), then multiply the result by 0.368. This equals 6.992.
4. Add this to your minimum age. Result: 27 is your optimal proposal age.
Okay this seems subjective in so many ways. But I would rather hear what you have to say. Lay it on me…What do you think? Try the equation. Did you get engaged by your ideal age?
