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Love Search Cost: Search Financial Cost

Search financial cost is the amount of money you spend to expand and maintain existing social networks. The bigger your social network is, the more money is needed to maintain it. If you are selective, you will need a bigger social network to find your soulmate. Mathematically, search financial cost is written as:

search financial cost

social network size x selectiveness

Financial Cost to Expand and Maintain Existing Social Network Size

Expanding and maintaining your social networks require you to invest financially. That means money for buying drinks, dinner, club cover charges, association membership fees, phone bills, and gas to travel. For productive people, search time cost translates to search financial cost. You could have used the time wasted on dating to further your career.

Insights and Predictions

Poor people have smaller social networks.
A party with free food and alcohol will attract many people.
Reason why restaurants and bars have Happy Hour.
Picky people with small social networks are destined to be alone.

Selectiveness Cost

The more selective you are, the more it will cost you to find your soulmate. I have constructed a Soulmate Calculator on the web site. Depending on how selective you are, it will estimate how many singles you need to meet to find your soulmate and how much your search financial cost will be. The calculator uses the latest statistics from the U.S. Census and the National Center for Health Statistics.

Below is a table of advertising rates using different methods of finding people.

Type	Description	Cost/People($)	% that are Single	% that are the Opposite Sex	Cost to Meet 1 Opposite-Sexed Single Person ($)	Cost to Meet 1,000 Opposite-Sexed Single ($)
Bar	A few drinks	$20 per 500 people	90	50	0.09	89
Club	Cover charge and drinks	$30 per 500 people	90	50	0.13	133
Television	30 sec prime-time spot	$17.78 per 1,000 people	50	50	0.07	71
Newspaper	full page black and white ad	$12.77 per 1,000 people	50	50	0.05	51
Magazine	1 color page	$2.34 per 1,000 people	50	50	0.01	9
Radio	top 100 markets, 60 sec. drive-time ad	$8.61 per 1,000 people	50	50	0.03	34
Billboard	weekly 30 sheet posters size	$2.05 per 1,000 people	50	50	0.01	8
Match.com	top online dating service	$150 a year per 650,000 people	100	50	0.0005	0.46

Source: Various Advertisement Associations

Using going to a bar as an example, the cost to meet 1,000 opposite-sexed singles is calculated as follows:

Cost to meet 1,000 single, opposite-sexed person

cost /person x
percent that are single x
percent of the opposite sex x
1,000

Now, let us hypothetically assume you are a picky person and we will do a cost analysis. Below are your criteria for a soulmate. Non-related traits are traits that are least likely to be associated with each other. For example, you can be really good-looking but not too bright. We can not use a criterion like income because it is influenced by looks, emotional intelligence, and intelligence.

Soulmate Criteria for a Picky Person
Non-Related Traits	Top Percentile
Face Attractiveness	30
Body Attractiveness	50
Intelligence	20
Emotional Intelligence	20
Spiritualism	20
Optimism	20
Energy	20
Humor	20
Ambition	20
Compassion	20
Opposite-sexed singles you need to meet	2,604,167

The probability of finding someone whose facial attractiveness is in the top 30 percentile of the population is 30 out of 100, or 30%. For the other 9 traits we find out the individual probability for each. Take the probability of each trait and multiply them together. The final probability is 0.000000384. Then take the number 1 and divide by this probability. Assuming you are heterosexual, the result will be 2,604,167, the number of opposite-sexed singles you have to meet in order to find one person who meets your soulmate criteria.

If you choose to go to bars to meet people, your search financial cost would be:

2,604,167 opposite-sexed singles x $89/1000 opposite-sexed singles = $23,371,771

This does not include time wasted or gas money for driving to bars. However, if you are this picky, going to every bar in town would not give you access to 2.6 million opposite-sexed singles. If you are bold and decide that you would do whatever it takes to find your soulmate, you would buy billboard ads at the busiest local highways. This will cost you about:

2,604,167 opposite-sexed singles x $8/1000 opposite-sexed singles = $2,100,833

As you can guess, by adding other criteria like age, height, ethnicity, religion, location, degrees, or income, your probability decreases dramatically. As your probability decreases, your search financial cost increases. Keep in mind this is only the cost to find one person that meets your soulmate criteria. There is no guarantee that you will meet his/her soulmate criteria.

Insights and Predictions

Picky people will have a harder time finding their soulmates than average people.
Being informed about your odds will increase your odds of finding love.
Online dating services are the most efficient way to meet eligible singles.
Billboard advertisement is cost-effective for focusing on a geographical location.
It is best to be average. Being too much or too little of anything will decrease your odds of finding love.

Tactics to Lower Selectiveness Cost

Use the Soulmate Calculator at www.solvedating.com to find out if your criteria are realistic. Lower your criteria if odds are unrealistic.
Become rich and buy a full-page ad in a newspaper.
Become a supporter. Join the campaign mailing list and help solve dating.
Join an online dating service.
Always ask for referrals from family, friends, and dates that do not work out.

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The Theory of Love Economics

Love Economics - a new love theory to promote intelligent dating by explaining love using simple math equations.
- A Behavioral Model of Love - a mathematical model to understand love.
- The Core Variables of Love - love's main variables.
- A Relationship - explained by love economics
- Assumptions of Love Economics - facts the model holds true.
- Emotional Availability - are you available?
- Past Love Experiences - are you screwed up or jaded?
- Commitment - reasons why people stay together.
- How to Use Love Economics - master the forces of love.
The Benefits of Love-understand why everybody wants to be loved.
- Emotional Needs - esteem, social, spiritual, and safety needs.
- Entertainment Needs - are you fun?
- Materialistic Needs - primary needs, sexual needs, and materialistic desires.
The Costs of Love-understand why love causes so much problems and pain.
- Search Cost of Love - finding love requires time, money, and energy.
  - Your Attractiveness - everything that makes people attractive.
  - Your Social Networking Skills - how many people do you know?
  - Search Time Cost - do you have time to search for love?
  - Search Financial Cost - do you have money to search for love?
- Rejection Cost of Love - cost of being turned down.
- Research Cost of Love - cost of verifying a potential lover.
- Maintenance Cost of Love - cost to keep love alive.
- Opportunity Cost of Love - missed opportunities while you are in love.
- Break Up Risk of Love - why people are insecure while in love.
  - Risk of Being Dumped - forces that influence people to dump and cheat on their lover.
  - Break Up Cost of Love - why it hurts so bad.

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