Complete Idiot's Guide to Living Together

By Rosanne Rosen

Living together without marriage is a choice many people make but there are unfavourable aspects to it. This book provides information on the options to consider before cohabiting and provides an escape plan for if things don't turn out well.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0028639286
• ISBN13: 9780028639284
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Alpha
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 0.9" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Know what you want to get out of the book....

What you get out of this book will be dependent on what you are looking for. There are several different ways to read the book. Personally, I found some of the book to be of value to my situation and most of the book to be interesting but not necessarily applicable. So, the first and main question is: Why are you reading this book? If you are like me, you read this book to give you tips on how to help make a "moving in together" situation work out better. This book did provide tips and hints, and while they may seem obvious when you read them, it is good to be reminded. If you are unsure whether or not moving in together is a good thing, this book will give you things to look for in yourself and in your partner to decide if this is a good idea. The book is broken up into several sections. At the very start of the book, it feels like the author is simply giving us a history of cohabitating and how it affects/influences marriage. This moves into a discussion on reasons why people move in together and a reminder to think about why we want to move in. The author discusses (and gives examples of) relationships and situations where cohabitating works and when it failed. If you finally decide to move in together there are several chapters that I found very valuable. My girlfriend and I have already decided to move in together. We know that it is important to have clearly defined goals and expectations for the relationship and moving in together (this is pretty much the point of the book, to define and agree on what to expect from cohabitating). There is a chapter on etiquette for cohabitating, and while it is simple and the author lists small things, I think that the small points of etiquette will become very important over the long run in just keeping things sane and neat and agreeable for your partner. Finally, the book moves onto what happens when cohabitating fails and how to cleanly get out of the apartment/relationship...and then, oddly enough, the book has a small section on marriage (right after the breaking up section). As I said, there is value in this book, and if you have already decided to move in with your partner, there are several sections of the book that will be very useful in looking over, just to remind yourself that you have to do the small things to help make the relationship and living situation successful. First decide why you want to read this book and what you want to get out of it, and you may have a better experience in reading it. Other reviewers have mentioned that there is a bias against cohabitating (rather than marriage), and this is true. The author tries to back it up with statistics and data, but the bias remains. However (and this will be my last comment), one of the most successful couples that Rosen gives an example of was one that cohabitated with no interest in getting married...but they both had the same expectation for the relationship

Caused me to change my mind!

If you're considering moving in with a romantic partner, this book will guide you through those important questions you should ask yourself. How will this affect the relationship? What about the money situation? Is this a good step towards marriage? My place or his? What could be the legal ramifications? Very thorough and specific, this book convinced me NOT to move in with my boyfriend. Thinking back now, I know that was the right choice! Read this book BEFORE ever bringing up the subject with your girl/boyfriend. I haven't found another book which explored this topic near as well.