Being Single Is Expensive As Shit: Was Common Sense, Is Now Proven

We’re all reminded daily that the emotional repercussions of not getting married will cripple, spindle, maim, and water-damage your femininity until you’re nothing more than a tiny crone shell wheeling her rusty grocery cart around a bunch of Pretty Youngs on the street. Right? Right.

Wellp, now Business Insider has a disheartening new breakdown on the fiscal disadvantages of being single and existing for the 102 million people who do so in America (and the 33 million who live alone), a figure that’s doubled since 1960.

Singles contribute around $1.9 trillion to the economy each year and spend a larger portion of their paycheck on food, housing, taxes, car and home insurance than married couples. They also suffer a 25% pay cut next to their hitched co-workers, thanks to the marriage-focused structure of health care and retirement plans. Insurance premiums, which generally run from one to three percent of an individual’s annual salary, pose a problem for singles: they can’t be put on a spouse’s plan if they’re unemployed or can’t afford their own at the moment. 85% of married Americans have a retirement nest egg, while only 67% of singletons are saving up.

As for single moms, half of them have an income under $25,000, one-third of the median for married couples. Gonna venture a guess that this may have to do with the annual cost of day care fees in America, which rings in higher than four years of in-state tuition at a public college, which could very well lead to these women eschewing full-time jobs in favor of saving on day care.