In this economy, millennials and Gen Z would rather break up than date someone in debt: ‘There’s a pretty big divide’

Checking a partner’s credit score used to be something people joked about before a third date.

Now it’s closer to standard practice.

According to TD Bank’s 2026 Love & Money Survey, which polled 2,000 adults, 46% of Americans say someone’s debt or financial habits would influence whether they pursue a serious relationship with them—and Millennials (51%) and Gen Z (49%) are more likely to say so than Gen X or Baby Boomers (39% each).

That reversal runs counter to the usual assumption that younger generations are more relaxed, more collaborative, and less judgmental about money than their parents were.

Ashley Weeks, a wealth strategist at TD Bank who works directly with clients on the survey’s findings, said the shift reflects economic conditions rather than a change in values.

“There’s a pretty big divide between Gen X and Boomer responses versus Millennials and Gen Z,” Weeks told Fortune .

“What we take from that is likely these are just a response to the existing stimuli that are out there in the economic space.” That includes things like student debt, inflation, and housing costs that have made personal finance inseparable from other parts of younger people’s lives, including who they choose to date.

Weeks said he sees the pattern firsthand.

TD Wealth advisors often meet separately with older and younger generations within the same family, and the conversations diverge sharply.

“The conversation for younger individuals does seem to focus more around the fact that someone’s ability to survive and be financially independent is an important factor now when evaluating the long-term prospects for a relationship,” he said.

He added that older relatives don’t always grasp the pressure younger people are under: “Sometimes senior generations—it seems like parents or grandparents—fail to grasp what the younger generations are going through.” Prenups go from taboo to standard practice More than half of respondents nationally (54%) said they would consider signing a prenuptial agreement, a number well above what prenups have historically polled at.

Weeks attributed the shift to generational exposure to divorce.

“People have seen their parents, and maybe their grandparents, go through a divorce, and the situation might not have transpired in a way that a younger generation thought was equitable,” he said.

Weeks noted this dovetails with broader coverage of the trend— millennial and Gen Z women in particular have driven a cultural shift toward treating prenups as a wealth-planning tool rather than a sign of distrust.