One in three young couples are now signing prenups before marriage, which is either a sign of financial prudence or a collective admission that we have stopped believing in love. Spoiler: it is the second one.
The prenup has evolved from a tool for the wealthy to protect family fortunes into a standard relationship accessory, right alongside matching couple hoodies and the mutual understanding that one of you will eventually resent the other. It is the financial equivalent of keeping your phone on silent during dinner — a small precaution that screams “I am already planning my exit strategy.”
What makes this trend genuinely funny is not that people are protecting their assets. That part is sensible. What is funny is that we have collectively decided that the best way to start a marriage is by drafting a detailed document about who gets the espresso machine when it all falls apart. It is like opening a restaurant by first deciding which creditors get priority in bankruptcy.
The stated reasoning — “don’t wait until you want revenge” — is perhaps the most honest thing anyone has said about modern relationships. We have moved past “till death do us part” and into “until one of us finds someone on Instagram.” The prenup is not insurance. It is a business license for love.
Young people are not wrong to do this, mind you. They have watched enough divorces to know that feelings change faster than cryptocurrency valuations. But there is something darkly comic about a generation that treats matrimony like a Series A funding round, complete with terms, conditions, and a clear exit clause.
So go ahead. Get that prenup. Protect your assets. Just do not pretend you are doing it for romance.