Hmmm, I just whizzed into this thread and posted Blue without reading all the background. Just shows when it comes to beauty, younger wins nearly every time.
Now that I have perused the entire thread, congrats big time, HT, but be very very careful. My son and his wife were happily married for 17 years until she decided she needed something else and split. She is in her early 40s, classic mid life crisis time, but way beyond the proverbial 7-year-itch. Their three boys are living with my son. Might be one of those California trendy Gee Everybody Is Divorced So Why Aren't We? things.
Any divorce has the potential to severely strain even the most solid financial foundation. I know you want to provide for your wife, and my son is still protective of his ex and still wants to make sure she is okay, but do seriously consider a rock solid prenumptial agreement or other protection for all of the financial security you have worked so hard to achieve.
Yes wives have rights to financial resources for sharing themselves in marriage blah blah blah, but it can still be a travesty when the real wage earner gets crucified in the divorce settlement, e.g., my son's ex left him, has no job, and has no marketable skills that come anywhere close to his earning capability. She just lives off what he has to send her every month.
Everyone has a right to his or her own pursuit of happiness, including divorce if and whenever. But main providers also have a right to keep the results of their labor. So when a low provider marries a high provider, look way ahead and see how that might be divided if things turn sour sometime in the future.
Many states have 50-50 splits for any divorce. I recently heard a talk radio show where several guys revealed how women had burned them badly sometimes after only a year or two of marriage and sometimes even after just living together.
Having said all that -- and please do heed that advice -- may you and your bride-to-be live, love, and prosper forever!
