Sixty percent of Americans say poor money habits are a dealbreaker in a new relationship, and single women say they’re looking for a partner earning an average of $172,000 a year, compared with $101,000 for single men, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 Planning & Progress Study, conducted with the Harris Poll among 4,375 U.S. adults.
Key Points
- 60% of Americans call poor money habits a dating dealbreaker, per Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 study.
- Single women’s average desired partner income is $172,000; single men’s average is $101,000.
- 41% of Gen Z respondents say money fights have seriously damaged a relationship, compared with just 12% of Boomers.
- The study surveyed 4,375 U.S. adults on financial attitudes, including how money shapes dating and relationship decisions.
The income-expectation gap between single men and women in the survey is substantial — roughly $71,000 — and Northwestern Mutual’s data frames it as part of a broader pattern where money habits, not just income level, function as an early screening criterion in dating. “Financial compatibility is increasingly becoming a relationship prerequisite, not an afterthought,” said Jeff Sippel, executive vice president of Northwestern Mutual’s insurance products, in the company’s release.
The generational split on financial conflict is just as stark. Gen Z respondents were more than three times as likely as Boomers to say money disagreements had seriously damaged a relationship, a gap the study’s authors attribute in part to the economic conditions younger adults are entering the dating pool under, including higher housing and living costs relative to income than previous generations faced at the same age.
Northwestern Mutual’s broader Planning & Progress Study, now in its multiple-decade run, has tracked how financial stress shapes major life decisions beyond dating, including retirement timing and homeownership. This year’s dating-specific findings suggest money has moved from a background consideration to a more explicit filter earlier in relationships than it may have been for previous generations, with both income expectations and tolerance for financial conflict shifting by age and gender.
The gap between what single men and women say they want in a partner’s income also raises a practical question for anyone actively dating: how openly to discuss finances, and how early. Financial planners who work with the study’s data have generally advised that money conversations don’t need to happen on a first date, but that couples benefit from addressing spending habits, debt, and general financial philosophy well before a relationship becomes a shared household, rather than treating it as a taboo topic to avoid until problems already show up.
