Chanté Joseph is tired of the endless torrent of advice telling us what to change about ourselves in order to find love. What if, she asks, we simply embraced ourselves as we are?
In her brand new column for Glamour UK, the viral journalist and broadcaster will explore what it means to be a single woman in 2026. But this isn't just another magazine column purely about romantic relationships. Chanté will delve into all facets of modern singlehood, and how it impacts everything from our friendships, families, and our relationship with ourselves and the world around us.
In her second column, Chanté explores the financial disadvantages of singlehood, and what it means in a world that forces unmarried, child-free women to be consistently remarkable in other ways.
I’m 30 in just over a week, and if there is one thing I can say about my 20s, I really did indulge – especially in my late twenties. I denied myself no pleasure, I worked hard – and I spent even harder. Now I find myself standing at the foot of a new decade, and I’m freaking out. I spent most of my twenties single and just under half of them living alone, working for myself and managing my life completely independently in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I don’t have many regrets from that decade; sure, there are several texts I should never have responded to, and moments when chasing the night led me in questionable places. However, I really gave myself what I wanted, and waited for no one to start living my life. In some ways, I felt like I had to.
So much of single life in my twenties felt like performing exceptionalism. While friends hunkered down into domesticity, I needed to fill the silence after “Are you dating anyone? No?” with something more extravagant. Sometimes this looked like a career win; other times it looked like living a truly indulgent life, one that felt good not only because I was doing what I wanted, but because I had something to share that would deflect from my single status. I felt I had to earn my place – which almost always cost money.
A recent study by Ally Bank found that although women are more content being single – and, in fact, enjoy it more than men – they are more likely to be worried about money. I am one of those women. Part of what makes the absence of a relationship sting is the cost of living. Renée Sylvestre-Williams, author of The Singles Tax: No-Nonsense Financial Advice for Solo Earners, defines the ‘singles tax’ as the “financial penalty that single people are paying as a result of a society that has primarily focused on ‘the couple’.”
In the UK, this looks like retirement costs being 44% more than for those in a couple. If you’re single in London, you’re paying over £20,000 a year on living and lifestyle costs. Over half of single UK adults report feeling “anxious” about the pressure they face to meet their retirement goals. There is also the cost of socialising, finding community, being active, fighting off isolation and keeping your life entertaining that we shoulder alone.
Welcome to Chanté Joseph's brand new column for Glamour UK.
This is how I find myself on Zoom to Renée, the weekend before my 30th birthday, asking her: “Is it all over for me?”
“You have time, you have time. Deep breath,” she reassures me from her apartment in Canada. When the pandemic hit, Renée was in her 40s, single and figuring it out financially. Her furloughed friends and family often had partners who were still employed and could share the load. This moment left her with endless questions: “How much should I have as an emergency fund, as a single person? Can I age in place? How do I create a financial plan?” she asks. “There were moments over the last few years where I’ve woken up staring at the ceiling like, ‘Am I going to be okay?’”
We’re all feeling it though. I’ve seen the Hinge prompts that romantically tell people they’re looking to someone to split the rent with. We probably yearn for an affordable life more than we yearn for love. Money – or a lack of it – circles our romantic lives and desires, clouding our judgment and feelings. From an obsession with who pays on a first date, to someone's earnings being a defining factor in their dating negotiables. Dejected men have deluded themselves into believing that all women desire millionaires and that having money will guarantee them the love they seek. Women are lapping up dating advice that encourages them to sit in high-end bars, bug-eyed, scanning the room for a rich partner. We cannot separate the pursuit of love from our own financial insecurities, and I think it makes both being single and actively dating equally difficult.
In her book, Renée doesn’t want to give people like me another budget template to follow; she wants them to start doing the awkward stuff. Firstly, her advice is to take stock of where I’m at financially without attaching too much to it. “You may not like what you see, but it is just information – and information doesn't have any emotion; it has no judgment,” she says.
Then I need to think about who I need to support me: an accountant or bookkeeper, a lawyer, a financial advisor or planner, and an insurance broker. What do I need to feel secure? She knows this is expensive and advises looking into fee-for-hire professionals for one-off advice. She stresses to me that just because things are more difficult, it is by no means impossible. Single women are buying homes more than ever, of course.
Ultimately, we both agree that beyond our individual choices, two things are most important: community needs to be stronger, and there needs to be change on a systemic level. I jokingly posted on Instagram that couples should stop lecturing their single friends about “it happening when they least expect it,” and do something meaningful like vote for the Green Party, but I actually meant it.
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All the personal finance tips in the world cannot make life easier for single people who face severe financial penalties that are baked into our systems. Things won’t get easier unless everyone is invested, but there is a complacency that romantic love breeds, encouraging tunnel vision that closes the unit off from the world. A world that is more affordable and fairer for single people means levelling out what is possible in a relationship, and as a person on your own. Until then, we have to understand community as more than a buzzword, but a necessity.
Photographer: Hannah Cosgrove
Stylist: Jack O'Neill
Photographer's Assistant: Ruby Griffiths
Location: The Ship and Shovell
