Market strategists at ConvergEx Group, a global brokerage company based in New York, have concluded that online dating can save the average online dater $6,400, because of a shorter dating period pre-marriage for couples that meet online. The report says:
At a conservative estimate of one date per week and a cost of $130 per date – $100 for a meal and drinks at a nice restaurant, plus $30 for two movie tickets and popcorn – the dating phase prior to an offline marriage runs up a $23,660 tab.
Calculated extremely literally — “dating” meaning going on a fancy first date every week for the duration of your relationship — relationships do cost several shiny pennies. People who marry after meeting online do so after about a year and a half — two years earlier than couples who meet offline. Even with membership fees for online-dating services, if couples split the bill, they save lots of good cash by going on fewer romantic pre-marriage dates.
It is a bit dispiriting to think that all the fancy dinners and movie popcorn disappear as soon as a couple marries. There are also reports that weddings are hella pricy. So perhaps throwing dollars at love-related expenses is an inevitable part of American courtship forever and always as the romantic capitalists intended.
