The whole "Retire early" thing really only works if there's not a HUGE wrench tossed at you later in life. And that "wrench" I'm talking about in this particular situation is divorce.
Disability/death of a spouse are obviously huge wrenches but you can insure against them. You can't insure against divorce, can you?
Well, I guess you can "insure" against it by being SUPER intentional about your marriage, prioritizing healthy communication, negotiation, and making sure each partner gets some "wins" on things that are most important to them. And I mean being more intentional than non-Mustachians, because Mustachians are planning to decrease their earning years, and the plan falls apart if one of the partners walks out in early retirement. A 4% withdrawal rate that works for one household won't work for two.
1) So do you think Mustachians focus more on keeping their marriages strong than do other folks? Is it honest to say they would do so partially "because of the numbers" or do you think that a byproduct of meticulously mapping out, in a specific way, your hopes and dreams with another person just intrinsically leads to a stronger marriage?
2) And do any Mustacians have stories about how a divorce in ER affected their lives?
For the record, I think my wife and I have a very strong marriage. But I'm sure there are a lot of people who thought the same thing who ended up divorced.