Living in a home with a committed life partner can be a lovely, comforting thing: you know each other’s routines, you get to spend meals and evenings together, and you probably even have some joint projects and hobbies.
One truth of living together is that once you’ve done it, it’s possible to stop talking about the future except when renewing your lease each year. Many couples who live together find themselves spending years, even decades, focused on the day-to-day without talking about big-picture plans for the future. It isn’t always a fear of commitment that postpones these conversations indefinitely; often, it’s simply a busy, mostly happy life that causes couples to delay the future focus. However, it’s valuable to set aside time to talk about the following questions at some point. When you do, you’ll see that these conversations don’t have to be long and drawn-out, but that both partners feel more content and understood afterward. Here’s four questions to center discussion on with a long-term partner. Is Marriage on the Table" (And If So?When")

Live-in partners have to deal with other people asking about marriage, which can be irritating, but it really is helpful to know what your partner feels about the subject. For one thing, if one or both partners think marriage is not a necessary “next step,” then you can defend each other against more traditional pressure, knowing why you stand for wh...