The financial squeeze is forcing more than one in four adults (28 per cent) to put their dreams of having it all on hold and prioritise between getting married, buying a home or having children, reveals new research from Churchill Home Insurance.
The nationwide study among couples suggests that the current tough financial climate is stifling ambitions for traditional family life, with many people who are planning to get married, start a family and buy their first home having to prioritise which do to first.
More than two out of five (43 per cent) of those who say they’ve had to prioritise chose to have children, while a third opted to buy a property first. Marriage is rated as the lowest priority for those couples who are choosing which to do first, with just over one in five (22 per cent) deciding to get married first.
Economic uncertainty appears to have hit the number of people tying the knot. A fifth (21 per cent) of couples say they have delayed getting married because of financial issues and eight per cent say lack of money has put them off marriage permanently. Government figures show the number of marriages in the UK is currently at an all-time low of around 266,950 marriages a year, compared with 313,551 five years ago**.
Financial worries are also making couples think carefully about starting a family. Over one in five (21 per cent) of those aged 18-34 have chosen to delay having children in order to wait for a more financially-secure environment to raise a child.
Matt Owen, spokesperson for Churchill Home Insurance, commented: “Financial uncertainty has meant a lot of people have had to make difficult decisions about their priorities in their home lives. It appears that having a big wedding is a now seen as a ‘nice to have’, but starting their own family is what’s really important for many couples.”
Couples in the North East who are looking to do all three are most likely to prioritise children over buying a house or getting married, with more than half (53 per cent) of those in North East choosing starting a family first.
