London, May 18 (IANS) A happy and stable marriage has the same "emotional value" to a husband or wife as a salary of 65,000 pounds a year, according to an author-journalist's new calculations.

 
 "Marriage is tremendously important. We have a tendency to think of ourselves as rational individuals who are driven by economic motives, but in fact we are social individuals, driven by the need for relationships," New York Times journalist David Brooks told BBC Radio Four's Today programme.
 
 Brooks calculated the "psychic benefit" of a long-term marriage at 65,000 pounds a year, reports the Daily Mail.
 
 The author's estimate of the "financial value" of a marriage is even higher than that of researchers who look at the cash differences between married and unmarried people.
 
 Brooks, writer of a new book titled "Social Animals", says relationships are more important than money and students should take courses about who they might marry.