Name: Solo-maxxing.

Age: Newish.

Appearance: Single, unwilling to mingle.

Wait, haven’t we already done solo-maxxing? No. You may be thinking of nonnamaxxing, Catholicmaxxing or friction-maxxing.

That’s quite enough maxxing, thank you very much. I think you’ll find it very much isn’t. Anyway, solo-maxxing is a new and exciting avenue in the maxxing oeuvre.

Tell me, what could it possibly mean? OK, brace yourself. It means – drumroll, please – being single.

Oh. An old term with a new name. How very gen Z. Sorry, let me clarify. Solo-maxxing is specifically being single because relationships are too expensive to sustain.

I think I understand. Data from the Bank of Montreal’s 2026 real financial progress index in February noted that the average gen Z date in the US – including food, drinks, transport and grooming – now costs $205 (£152). Let’s say you need to go on 20 dates to find the love of your life. That’s $4,100 (£3,044), before all the maintenance dates you’ll need to go on once you settle down.

Yikes. And disposable income isn’t exactly something people have these days. Especially in the generation most affected by AI career displacement.

Fine, solo-maxxing it is. TikTokers are all over it, naturally. One user describes “the ability to do things by yourself and not depend or lean on anyone else” as “the number one skill you should learn and master in your twenties”.

Well, that’s bleak. Is it bleak? Or is it a sign of great resilience?

Abandoning traditional forms of social structure because of systemic economic pressure? Well, I suppose so, when you put it like that.

What activities are people doing while they solo-maxx? From the look of it, filming themselves going for a run, filming themselves at restaurants, filming themselves at the cinema. That sort of thing.

Is that doing things by yourself, though, if you’re then sharing it online? No, that’s performatively being alone for likes. But the point still stands. An entire generation is resigning itself to singledom because it’s cheaper than being in a relationship.

Is that completely true? Well, last year the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimated that a single working-age adult needed £30,500 gross a year to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living, while a working-age couple needed £43,000 between them, which works out at £21,500 each.

Hang on a second, by that standard being single actually costs £9,000 a year more than being in a relationship. You’re right! Solo-maxxing is a lie!

So I guess we’re going to be hearing about couple-maxxing at some point. Almost certainly. Give it a fortnight.

Do say: “Gen Z thinks relationships are ruinously expensive.”

Don’t say: “Just wait until gen Z has kids.”