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My parents married when Mom was 34, Dad, 28.  They are still living, happily married.  Age is a factor if you plan on lots of children.  Two of three children are living.  My brother died after two days, reason unknown.  The job at which my Dad worked 40 hour weeks provided enough money to enable Mom to quit her job to raise us.  He bought a house and had excellent benefits, all on a high school diploma and three years of mechanical training from the military.  The same job today requires a minimum of a Master's degree in mechanical engineering, computers expertise, and 8-10 years experience.  The only jobs at the same firm for someone with high school and military training would be working part-time as a custodian, probably for a private cleaning company on a contract basis.  IOW, in no way enabling a man to support a wife and family.  Societal conditions have pushed the age of marriage way up for both men and women.  It can no longer be said what are appropriate ages.  My Mom hardly stayed waiting at home.  At 34, she had worked her way up on a high school diploma to being in charge of billing at the local water utility.  Her job is nowadays replaced by a computer!  She did help my Dad to buy the house, outright, no mortgage.

This is a very good point.  Because our society is so messed up, it is not very realistic to talk about the ideal.  Biologically, men and women should be marrying in their late teens or early 20s.  Almost no secular people (and probably not even many trads) are emotionally mature enough for marriage at that age.  And few people are financially prepared for marriage then either.  The ideal would be for all these factors to come together at the same age and that is not likely in our culture.

Because the world is disordered doesn't mean we Catholics have to surrender to it.  No, we must fight against the diabolical tide and do what we know is pleasing to God.  This means marrying young enough to have as many babies as He will send us.  Delaying marriage for financial reasons of course is morally disordered and likely to lead to pre-marital sex.  What couple wants to enter into marriage with that guilt?  And it leads to many problems later on with what some call "good girl syndrome" whereby the now-married wife has guilt over pre-marital sex and denies hubby.  Where does that lead? To heartache and possibly worse.

Quote from: Jaynek

This is a very good point.  Because our society is so messed up, it is not very realistic to talk about the ideal.  Biologically, men and women should be marrying in their late teens or early 20s.  Almost no secular people (and probably not even many trads) are emotionally mature enough for marriage at that age.  And few people are financially prepared for marriage then either.  The ideal would be for all these factors to come together at the same age and that is not likely in our culture.

Because the world is disordered doesn't mean we Catholics have to surrender to it.  No, we must fight against the diabolical tide and do what we know is pleasing to God.  This means marrying young enough to have as many babies as He will send us.  Delaying marriage for financial reasons of course is morally disordered and likely to lead to pre-marital sex.  What couple wants to enter into marriage with that guilt?  And it leads to many problems later on with what some call "good girl syndrome" whereby the now-married wife has guilt over pre-marital sex and denies hubby.  Where does that lead? To heartache and possibly worse.

Yes,  I agree.  I mentioned the need for early marriage in a previous post.  Avoiding sin should be our top priority.  I am just making the point that, strictly speaking, due to the disorder of our society, early marriage is not an ideal situation.  It is the best one can do under the circuмstances.  The ideal would be a godly society in which biological maturity normally coincided with emotional maturity and financial stability.