Singledom is so expensive that women’s financial confidence plummets if they’re unmarried

The survey, from financial services company Equitable, of over 1,200 U.S. women aged 18 to 77 and 500 men explores how personal relationship status can change women’s relationship with and management of her finances.

Overall, the survey found that women are less confident in their ability to manage their finances and reach their long-term goals than men are, regardless of age, income, or asset level. A greater share of women say they actively worry about money at least once a day compared to men, and women are also much more likely to feel stressed about their finances.

That’s not new insight. But Equitable also finds that that confidence changes dramatically based on a woman’s relationship status: 42% of married women report believing in their ability to reach their financial goals, compared to 37% of singles, 35% of divorced women, and 29% of widows.

In fact, married women (in Equitable’s survey, this included women in a long-term partnership) report being better able to focus on long-term financial goals, like retirement, than single, divorced, or widowed women. They are the only group to name long-term goals like a comfortable retirement and travel among their top three financial goals.

There are any number of reasons for this. But a big one is that it’s generally harder to be a single person in today’s economy, no matter your gender, than it is with a potential dual income.

And divorcées and widows may not have needed to work, or stayed home with children, limiting their earning power. They also were less likely, generally, to be involved with long-term financial strategy in heterosexual relationships, leaving them…