CINDY, INCIDENTALLY:

When you’re single there isn’t a day that goes by when someone doesn’t ask “Why aren’t you married?”

This can be the clerk at the neighborhood grocer who rings up your bottle of whatever-is-on-sale red wine, your grandmother — who is really asking for your mother — or maybe it’s your blissfully wedded friend who is now living in a tract home in Temecula and with child.

It’s a question you get used to answering and one that moodily varies among “never,” “someday,” “it may not happen for me” and “when I meet the right person.”

The question doesn’t bother me, until people addend it with an age caps warning or bleak statistics.

Who really wants to hear that they have a better chance of getting attacked by terrorists or that the dating pool is now left with the residual debris of “sucky” people.

Thanks a lot, society.

That’s just a whole lotta pressure for people battling it out in a dating world that’s already complicated and messy.

Recently, an article published in USA Today, titled “Sooner versus Later: Is there an ideal age to get married?” discussed the pros and cons to marrying younger or older. Fertility, maturity and career goals were used as factors for both sides.

“Those who advocate marriage in the early to mid-20s say that’s the age when the pool of possible mates is larger, it’s when couples can ‘grow up’ together and it’s prime for childbearing. But others favor the late 20s or early 30s, saying maturity makes for happier unions and greater economic security — both of which make divorce less likely,” wrote USA Today author Sharon Jayson.

Curious on the local perspective, I asked a few if they thought there was an ideal age to be married.

Huntington Beach resident Tyler Hawkins*, 35, was recently engaged for the first time and he said age wasn’t a factor for him as much as meeting the right woman was.

“The problem with saying there is an ideal age is that you have very little control over when you meet the right person,” he said. “You can be ready and not have that special person in your life. I think it’s more important to find the right person than it is to be the right age.”

Jennifer Miel, 26, from Fountain Valley said that economically speaking, younger is better because married couples get tax breaks, can invest in a mutually exclusive 401k program, buy a home and work together to solidify a fiscal future.

But, the romantic Miel, who isn’t married yet, said none of it matters if she doesn’t meet the right person.

Katherine Nguyen of Costa Mesa said that when she was younger she had visions of being married and a homeowner by 26. She recently turned 30 and realized aspirations from youth don’t always translate to reality.

“When you are young you think you have a little life plan,” Nguyen said with a laugh. “But fast forward to 30 and I have neither. But nowadays, 30 is the new 20. And what’s more important is you want to make sure it’s with the right person. I know more of what I want and so now I won’t settle.”

It seems this debate doesn’t have a winning answer, mainly because it just depends.

It depends on fate, timing and what’s important to everyone individually.

Are you looking to get married for the sake of getting married, or are you looking for that one person you would add to a list titled: “Things I would want if stuck on a deserted island.”

I think I know what I’m waiting for.

*Names were changed to protect the singletons who didn’t want their parents, partners and peers to know they are die-hard romantics.

CINDY ARORA is a freelance writer. She may be reached at paprgrrl@gmail.com.