There’s probably been a time in your life (men, I’m looking at you too), where you’ve joked about wanting a sugar daddy. No one is immune to fantasizing about having enough cash to order dessert with every meal, splurge on a designer pair of kicks, or have their student loans paid off.
But what is a sugar daddy really? Simply put, a sugar daddy (or momma) is typically an older person who seeks companionship in exchange for financial benefits. Each arrangement differs from one another—some people expect a sexual relationship in exchange for gifts and money, others prefer to simply have a friendly companion to spoil with no strings attached. In recent years, college students have also turned to sugar daddies to pay for their education by signing up on sugar daddy websites specifically designed to find these types of relationships.
While having a sugar daddy is controversial in the opinion of some, it is an adult decision and can be mutually beneficial if the people involved are clear about their expectations for the arrangement from the beginning. Finding a sugar daddy is about searching in the right places at the right times—and it’s a lot easier than many think.
How to find a sugar daddy
1) Try sugar daddy websites
There are multiple dating websites that are specifically tailored to finding a sugar daddy arrangement. Sugar Daddie and Seeking Arrangements are among the top websites to find a man ready to spoil—especially if you’re a college student.
Seeking Arrangements has a specific membership called Sugar Baby University, where college students receive a $3,000 stipend from a sugar daddy each month to pay for living and tuition. In total, there are 5 million active users, with 1 million sugar parents and 4 million sugar babies looking for someone special. The college representing the most sugar babies? New York University.
Setting up an account is simple on these dating sites. Though it takes 24 hours to pass the verification clearance, messages will begin to fill your inbox shortly after. Just be cautious throughout your search for catfishing trolls, because dealing with these fakers is never fun.
2) Use sugar daddy dating appsAnother convenient way of finding a sugar daddy is swiping left and right from your phone with apps like Bumble or Tinder. Just like a normal search for the right partner, these apps make it easier to actually get to know the dude before meeting up in person without any expectations. However, one way to narrow the field for sugar daddies is by tailoring the age settings to a range that’s at least 20 years older than you. Suitors will get the drift.
Jane Doe, who wishes to keep her identity disclosed, met her sugar daddy on Tinder under the pretense of friendship before talk of money and benefits occurred.
“On one particular day, we had a talk about sugar daddies and he asked me if I had anyone to take care of me and I said I didn’t,” Doe said. “When I moved to Germany, he started sending me money, and then he sent me a credit card linked to his account.”
Which goes to show, you don’t even need your sugar daddy to stay local.
3) Hang out at expensive bars
Fake it till you make it. If you hang around parts of town where the wealthy are bound to make an appearance, the chances of organically meeting a sugar daddy aren’t terrible.
Social venues like gentlemen’s clubs, expensive bars, and pricey hotel lounges are great places to scout potential daddies. If you can hustle your way into a country club or golf course bar, even better. Be confident, be somewhat put-together, and hell, be honest with what you desire. Just be cautious about where you let anyone take you (text a friend!) and be open and clear about what kind of companionship exchange you’re entering into.
“I feel like you have to be all in, or not at all,” Doe said. “You just have to know when to accept and when not to. Just trust your gut.”