Do you think for yourself or do you just worry about everyone else's approval?

My girlfriend's parents have a 15 year age gap, my parents have a 10ish.

Not far back into our history this becomes more and more of a the norm not the exception.

There's a statistic from OLD that shows the age range men and women prefer based on their age range. If memory serves men across all ages enjoy the 21-25yo bracket more than any other because women are sought after for their beauty which is directly correlated to their youth.

Often I see women who are only pretty because of good genetics, not lifestyle choices. Give any of these hot party girls 10 years on the scene and gone is their attractiveness.

idk if its "normal" but being normal rn is being fat and your wife is in charge of you and your daughter is a borderline internet prostitute. and your son is a fat, weak bitch lol. in high school we had a girl start dating and marry a 40+ yr old and i thought it was disgusting at the time (jealousy of me wanting the beautiful girl.) but now that im older i realize i would've ruined the relationship anyway and then where would she be? the 40 year old married her, gave her kids and a great life in upper class.

One fuckin chick got upset that you were 28 and you are freaking out about your options at 42. Start charging her rent because she's living in your head.

From a guy who is 42, my options are better now than they were at 30 and 25. Take that as you will.

you are hamstering all right. I saw it in your last post.

Your current hamstering is all about how it might 'look weird' if you (the guy) is older than the chick.

Forget all about 'what it will look like'. This is partly 'main character syndrome' on your behalf.

The other part of it is that you seem to be listening to the mouth noises of the inspins. Forget all about that.

There are loads of young women that choose to marry or LTR much older men. This is normal, has always been normal. It will never change, no matter how upset the feminazis are.

You need to forget all about age gaps and 'how it might look' and get on with your life, your goals and your mission. In terms of marriage - think carefully about it.

The only reason a man could ever have to get married is to provide (at huge risk to himself) a stable environment in which to raise children. That is it. Marriage makes men poor and celibate.

You are entirely focused on the wrong question: young chicks, age gap, what age you should marry etc

The big question is this: Do you want to have children?

You need to answer yourself that question. If you don't want to have children, then the rest of your life is very simple - never get married. Just have a series of girlfriend that are much younger, like Leo Di Caprio. He has never married... because he doesn't need to.

Stop ruminating on the social etiquette of age gaps and focus on what you want out of life. There will always be pussy available, but you have to ask at what price.

Everyone will accept it fine if you are quality. Only the jealous will gossip and that really just adds to your kudos.

However, I did note a "ready to settle down" in your post. If this is a "will only have the resources secured by then, then fair enough and I hope you do it sooner" If however its is a "I fear the laws around cohabitation (lets assume you know marriage is insane in the west today and won't touch it with a barge pole), then do bear in mind it is not going to get any better if you Chad about for a few more years first.

While it is dumb as hell for women to delay reproduction past say 21, if they can get a suitable partner sooner, it is still pretty dumb for men to do so too (if they can get the finances and the girl). The older and more successful you get the bigger target you become for being taken for child support and your home and whatever cuck arsed laws they have put in place in your state for cohabiting. You also have less time left to rebuild after the rape of your finances has happened. Do not assume any woman is safe. She may be safe when you knock her up but later when life has tested her and taken you both in different directions, she might be and she might not be safe. When the going gets tough, women look after number 1. Its best to take risks when you are young and can bounce back. You also tend to have less to lose then.

Machiavelli was spot on when he said if you know you are going to have to fight a battle and you are strong enough to win it, do not delay to engage. Reproduction is a battle these days for men. As soon as you are strong enough to win -engage.

Any reproductive relationship with any woman entails unfair levels of risk for men these days. These days I am thinking that if/when my current relationship ends, I will go celibate just because I am too old to want to rebuild after a split, have done enough reproducing with enough women. When I talk to older men who have been ruined by their divorces, I am grateful I learned my lesson in my early 30's. I only had to give away just over half of what I owned and borrow about 5 times my annual income. I bounced back, had kids with 3 other women after that and will in less than a decade be untouchable financially by any woman, am in the black and outright own business, land and a house, my pension when it comes will be all mine. Suffer that hit at 50 and its another story.

Fight while you have strength.

Dude. What a dumb question.

I don't know what the statistics are. But as an average, middle class income, fairly average looking guy from Western Europe, that's not what I see around me. Mostly, the age difference seems to be 2-7 years or so.

Probably different though, if you're part of the financial elite, famous, or looking like a Greek god (minus the small penis). But that's not my social class, so I don't see a lot of that personally.

I was 36, wife was 29 when we started hooking up. So yeah, prime epiphany phase lol. Which is probably the reality for most middle-aged men. You can easily get women in their epiphany phase (late 20's) even when you're 50+ though.

But early 20's? Well, then you're either going to have to be really high value, or sacrifice some things that probably aren't worth sacrificing (young and fat, young and ugly, young and BPD, young and retarded etc.). Young women have a lot of options, unless there's something really wrong with them.

Obviously, there are huge cultural differences here as well.

is it normal to eventually marry

Stop right there.

A) why the fuck would you want "normal"? Normal sucks.

B) why the fuck would you want to get married at all? Marriage is a terrible deal for men. I didn't know how bad of a deal it was when I did it, but you know.

I saw where you wrote somewhere (not sure if you edited it out of this post, or if it was a comment in another post I saw when I was skimming during brief downtime at work yesterday) (edit - found it) that some chick was into you until her friend played cockblock by saying something like "eeeew, he's 28!"

A) That chick was into you until her friend interfered. That's why you initiate, isolate, and escalate.

B) if that happens again before you get a chance to isolate, have fun and play with it. It's an opportunity to show that you're unflappable. Try a little Agree & Amplify.

"Yeah, I'm 28! I was hoping she'd help me pick my nursing home as I wait to die!"

You will just tell her dad "I'm saving your daughter before she turns into a whore". Maybe using different words.

Her dad will be extremely happy to see a successful man in his prime (30s), who presumably has a good financial situation and conservative values, taking her daughter's hand before society and college turns her into a whore.

And if her dad is a liberal cuck, he will have no say in the family, so her parents won't pose an issue on who their daughter marries.

I think you just needed reassuring words for a thought you already had but were too afraid to express. Cheers mate

You won't even show your age until 45+. All I'm gonna say is you do NOT want to be waking up to a baby crying in the middle of the night in your 50s. You do not want to be living with your kid into your 70s.

As far as mate selection goes, it's very rare for a good woman to get into her 30s as a marriageable woman. My wife was 28 when we got married and we were both late bloomers. Plus we spent years getting to know each other. A good rule of thumb is the 3 strikes rule. If a woman has already gone through 3 relationships without success, she's one of those hopeless serial monogamists that ask the big question in her 30s.