Majority of Americans seek a romantic partner who makes at least $30,000: Survey

Yahoo Finance's Dave Briggs discusses survey findings on how Americans discuss their finances with romantic partners and other financial dating dealbreakers.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: Pay transparency-- it's here. 13 US states and cities, covering 1 in 4 workers in the United States, from New York to California and Colorado, now require employers share salary information. It's a step in the right direction no matter how absurd the salary ranges might be.

In one case, a Netflix range between $90 and $900,000 a year. A young TikToker even joined us recently, is making six figures asking people how much they make. Gen Z once again leading that revolution. Listen.

HANNAH WILLIAMS: We see older generations are less likely to share their salaries or talk about money in general. Younger generations like Gen Z and Millennials are way more likely to share.

DAVE BRIGGS: And they're doing it. Dating-- salary transparency has come for dating, with 13% of couples discussing it within the first month of dating. And there's a clear line of delineation here-- making less than $30,000 a year is a deal-breaker, according to Western and Southern Financial Group. Don't get me wrong-- with inflation on everyday items, sky high mortgage rates, housing prices, you name it, living on $30k ain't easy.

But this guy made half that-- this dork right here made $15,000 a year at KEVN in Rapid City, South Dakota when I began dating my now wife. While she deserves a ton of credit for eating ramen noodles and PB and J for the first few years, she, like most investors watching this show right now, was looking to buy low believing this stock would go up and up exponentially. And it has, actually.

Dating is hard. Finding somebody to enjoy spending your life with is a real life "Mission Impossible." Nearly a third of couples wish they'd discussed salary earlier in the relationship. So while transparency is important, the key is doing your homework. If financial goals go hand in hand with whom you want to grow old with, eye that person like an investment.

Seana, look at where the stock is going, not where it is now. You would never buy a stock based on, oh, that's where it's going to stay forever. You're looking for where it's going, am I wrong?

SEANA SMITH: No, I think you're exactly right. I do agree with you. I was hoping I was going to disagree with you, but I do agree with you. You're spot on just in terms of you don't want to sell anybody short.

$30,000 a year, yes, it might not be what you're hoping to achieve during a lifetime or what you're hoping your salary is going to be 10, 15, 20 years down the line. You got to take a chance on that person. But speaking of things that people may now be starting to discuss more, or maybe more so wish they had discussed more-- you mentioned that salary figure-- also debt in general, just in terms of how much debt everyone is-- or many people are racking up at this point.

63% said that they never discussed debt in their relationship. Millennials say that credit card debt is the biggest deal-breaker. When you take a look at the numbers, about 2/3 of Millennials have credit card debt. So if that's your deal-breaker, you got to start talking about it. I think the key to all this is just communication.

DAVE BRIGGS: No question about it. There should be more of that. Personal loans was the biggest deal breaker when it came to both men and women. And though one's from Mars one's from Venus, 31% of men and women said personal loans were the number one deal breaker when they found out about them. My wife did have personal loans, which I found out about early. I want to put you on the spot here.

SEANA SMITH: Yes.

DAVE BRIGGS: If your husband made $15 grand when you began dating, would you still have been dating?

SEANA SMITH: Of course.

DAVE BRIGGS: OK, good answer.

SEANA SMITH: Of course. It would have been tough. We both lived in New York at the time-- 15,000, I think we would have had to move. But yes, of course.

DAVE BRIGGS: And we should point out, as our TikTok friend did there, not just with pay transparency but with dating, it is Gen Z that's really beginning to change this and begin to have that conversation earlier-- really interesting study. We'll link that on Twitter.