Should We Live Together??

A question and response directed toward someone who is considering a life/relationship shift!

My boyfriend and I have been together for about a year anda half. We’re both in our late twenties. We’ve talkedabout marriage, however it’s not on our top 10 list rightnow and neither of us is quite ready for that.
We each have separate living arrangements. He owns a homeand I live in an apartment. We live about 10 miles apart. We’ve been talking about living together. It woulddefinitely be easier and would save a lot of time and money.Also, it would probably give us some idea as to how itmight work out if we married later. Before I make anydecisions to move forward with this, I would like to getsome advice – pros and cons. Is it a good idea to “testdrive” a relationship like this? I think my biggestconcerns are the “cons” – why you might think thiswould be a bad idea. What do you think?
Erin in Englewood

Hi Erin,
I personally, really do not think that living together is a bad idea prior to marriage!
However, I do believe that you should have an arrangement in place to assist you both with this transition and to increase the likely hood for your success in this level of commitment and beyond.
I hear that this is possibly the person that you eventually want to marry and spend your life with and that this is a “test run” toward that prospect. You’re obviously wise to request and consider advice from others prior to making this move. Congratulations, this is a phenomenal way to approach this matter! This could indicate several things that you are thinking about and I wonder what your boyfriend is thinking too! Please, do yourselves the favor of doing the next right thing for your relationship. Find a coach that can work with both of you, together, to develop a success strategy right now, at this very stage, prior to moving in together. The exploration between you both and your coach will allow you the opportunity to construct a solid foundation upon which you can build a most intimate, life long, love affair.
Bill Paglia-Scheff
1extraordinarycoach@gmail.com
extraordinaryrelationship.blogspot.com
860-209-9254