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August 11, 2025 
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 | By Mike Dang |
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One of my favorite shows on television right now is the HBO series “The Gilded Age.” It’s a show about New York society in the late 19th century, but it’s also very much a show about money. Without spoiling too much, the characters on the show are constantly gaining and losing wealth in ways that change their positions in their circles and places in the world.
Money is also a driving factor for some of the advantageous, but loveless marriages that were common at the time. Money can’t buy everything, but it could purchase social standing by, say, joining a wealthy American woman to a cash-strapped British aristocrat. (These women were known as “dollar princesses.”)
Marrying for money still happens, but most people — obviously! — want to actually like their spouse. Many people stay single until they meet the right person, but there are also plenty of people who decide to stay single until they have their financial houses in order. Maybe they don’t want to bring a large debt into a relationship, or they want to be doing well in their jobs and earning enough money before they think about being able to commit.
We’re working on an article along these lines: If you’re single and putting off dating or getting in a relationship until you’re earning enough money, how do you know when you have enough and are ready to put yourself out there? If you have experience with this and have some advice to share, we’d love to hear from you. Send me a note at mike.dang@nytimes.com.
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