Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How long did you wait to propose to your girlfriend?

9 years for me, just to be " engaged" no plan to be married and pay the tax to the state.

I've been married and it was a struggle with an addict. Kinda gave up on that it was a mess.

This time, I've been unable to convince myself of the need for the license. She will always be my girlfriend for life, We have been together long enough to put her on my employees health benefits, and she can also now drive my company vehicle.

We are each others full beneficiaries in all financial and medical requirements, and we each own our own homes. Engagement is likely as far as it will go. However....... the words never and always are often troublesome for me.

Seems like the plan is working and I really do not fully grasp the "marriage" concept when there are no mutually created children involved. Am I to assume that paying the tax to the state gets us anything we don't already share?

Neither of us is ever going to leave the other, However if some kind of catastrophic event occurred, either of us could just walk away with no legal marriage "license" to cause that huge court battle.

As far as "Common Law" well some states may have different ways to manage this. I've watched this play out twice in my life in Washington State with good friends. In neither case was the battle even close to having that marriage license. The couples were sent to mediation to divide up the things they owned mutually, whatever they owned separately remained theirs. Neither man lost any property, or savings, retirement, investments, etc. Actually neither had to even share what he actually had in his personal bank account. With the exception of the joint account that one fella had with his girlfriend.

A third guy that was living with a lady 10 years, but not full time as they both owned homes, had the whole thing thrown out as not relevant to common law. Given my options, I'll choose the common law battle every time over the purchase of the license! Seems to me the court struggles with the concept of common law division of property.

Imagine the simple divide of property. Versus the complicated mess that 35 dollar tax will cause you!

As it is for us, I refer to her as my wife and girlfriend interchangeably. Partner sounds to gay. I must admit those gays really helped with the healthcare and car permission! Our company is politically correct and cannot discriminate against a straight couple now ( us) for health care rights! I was the first one to challenge this when I managed to get her on my benefits.

I have recently started to refer to her as my undocumented wife. That really screws peoples understanding of English up!