[two characters are talking in a bar, the light blue one of the left looks smug, while the dark blue one on the right looks concerned]
[light blue] Women are so shallow, they only want a tall good looking guy with tons of money
[dark blue] What about Brenda? She seems to really care and is always there for you
[light blue] Brenda? She's fat poor and ugly!
Gets more important as you get older, actually.
Letting a chick mooch off you for too long in a common-law state is a bad-idea. Kids with a poor chick is also a bad idea. All of this is moot if you just plan to give her half your stuff early-on; I won't lie, that's more mature than demanding someone you are better-off than put up with your shit indeffinitely; but try that before the relationship ends, and you're likely to find she has no more use for you.
Friend of mine has three criteria for women, aside from attractive which is just a given in his dating pool:
House (at least somewhere to go where she's welcome and not abused)
Income (ideally a job, but passive-income works)
Vehicle (or willing to use whatever form of transport it takes to get her need$ met without constantly borrowing/demanding rides)
If she's not bringing all three to the table, you're paying for whatever you get out of the relationship, somehow. Me? I don't think that would bother me so much were I to find myself single, but I have other criteria re: emotional and overall maturity, and women who have those figured out tend to have the House, Income, Vehicle thing worked-out as well.
Lastly, it goes without saying that if you're not bringing all that to the table, you don't get to be so picky. These are long-term-relationship criteria, but people would be so much healthier if they knocked these all out before pretending they deserve to be anyone else's one-and-only.