Tributes and sends
A tribute is money a sub sends to his domme, and each payment is a send. One findomme told Vice in 2020 that subs had to send a tribute before she would even speak to them.
Findom explained
What Is Findom? Financial Domination Explained
What it means, how a dynamic runs, why people crave it and where it began.
What does findom mean?
Findom is short for financial domination: a kink in which a submissive gets a thrill from handing money, gifts or control of their spending to a dominant, who enjoys taking it. Wikipedia calls it "a fetish lifestyle in which a financial submissive gifts objects or money to a financial dominant". It is consensual, it usually happens online, and the sub expects no sex in return.
The word joins "financial" and "dom", short for domination. Wikipedia's names for the dominant include findomme, Goddess and money mistress; for the submissive, paypig, finsub, money slave and human ATM, all covered in what a paypig is. On a dating profile it means the same: someone who wants money to flow from sub to domme, not an ordinary date.
Vice called it "an offshoot of BDSM-style domination" in 2020, so yes, it is a kink. The rest of the vocabulary is in our findom terms glossary.
How does a findom dynamic work?
Two adults, two roles, one direction for the money. Psychologist Sarah Ashton, speaking to ABC's triple j in 2024, described a dynamic between "a financial dominant (findom) and a submissive 'paypig' or finsub".
- The findomme
She takes control
She decides what is sent, when and how often, sets the tasks and makes the sub earn every reply. The power is her pleasure.
See the subs - The paypig or finsub
He hands it over
He sends, obeys and asks before he spends. His reward is the giving, the control and a domme who notices him.
See the dommes
Most of it happens in messages: limits, a budget and a few rules agreed first, then the domme takes over.
How it plays out
What happens in a findom dynamic?
Every dynamic is different, but most use the same few pieces.
Tasks and rules
How to address her, when to check in, what he may buy without asking. Vice wrote in 2020 about a sub whose tasks included housework and writing assignments.
Wishlists and gifts
Not every tribute is cash. McCracken and Brooks-Gordon's 2021 study defines findom as the payment of "cash or gifts from a wish list".
Drains and cash meets
A drain is a run of sends that takes as much as the sub can afford to give. A cash meet moves the game offline, to a public place where cash or a gift changes hands and nothing more.
What is the psychology of findom?
For the right two people, money is power you can see. The people who study it point to three things going on at once.
For the sub: the thrill of giving it up
Sex researcher Justin Lehmiller called findom "an uncommon sexual interest" in 2016, one in which people, usually men, are aroused by being made to give money to a dominant partner. Losing control of the money is the kick.
For the domme: power and a lifestyle
The findomme gets worship and the purse strings. Of the findommes who answered McCracken and Brooks-Gordon's 2021 survey, 79% did it to fund their chosen lifestyle, and the study placed findom on a continuum from "a lifestyle choice in the BDSM community" to "a purely economic and legitimate form of commercial labour". On Findom Finder it stays personal: a place to meet, not to sell.
For both: a game they chose
Joe Kort, writing in Psychology Today in 2019, put it simply: "Both the dom and the sub know that this is a consensual game they're playing, and both are getting off on it."
It can go wrong. Psychologist Mark Griffiths warned in 2016 that for a minority, findom spending can turn into something "akin to problem gambling" when it eats into money they cannot spare. Our guide to findom addiction covers the signs.
Where did findom come from?
Findom is older than the hashtag. Business Insider reported in 2022 that financial domination "has been around since at least the 1990s", and Wikipedia says it took its current form with the internet.
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | Financial domination already exists | Business Insider |
| About 2005 | A findomme claims she coined "findom"; no record confirms it | Business Insider |
| 2007 | The first academic study, on online "money slavery" | Keith Durkin |
| 2013 | Vice calls it a very expensive fetish, spelt "fi-dom" | Vice |
| 2021 | A survey of 56 findommes | McCracken and Brooks-Gordon |
| 2023 | A study of 277,293 findom tweets | Gündüz, Demirel and Tombul |
| 2025 | A study of findom accounts on X in Poland | Jas |
Durkin's paper in the journal Deviant Behavior drew on four years of web pages, newsgroups and message boards, so the idea that findom started on Twitter does not hold. Research is still thin. The newest study, by Jas, found that verbal aggression works as a mutually agreed part of the dynamic.
Is there a findom documentary?
Several, from 14-minute shorts to an hour-long film.
- Findoms: Uncovered (Channel 4, 2025). A 25-minute film presented by Sydney Lima.
- Olivia Attwood: Getting Filthy Rich (ITV2, 2025). Series 3, episode 4, called simply "Findom".
- True Life (MTV, 2016). The episode "I'm a Financial Dominatrix".
- Cash Slaves (VICE, 2015). A 16-minute film in the Love Industries series.
- Inside The World Of Financial Domination (SBS, Australia). A 14-minute short from The Feed.
- Paypigs (2025). A 61-minute documentary directed by Giancarlo Mirabella.
What does findom mean in gay slang?
Exactly what it means everywhere else. Findom is usually pictured as a woman taking a man's money, but the dominant can be a man: Wikipedia's names for the dominant include money master and cashmaster, and 18 of the 56 findommes in McCracken and Brooks-Gordon's 2021 survey were men. Findom happens between men too, though Grindr's community guidelines ban it by name.
Where do findommes and paypigs meet?
Mostly on X, where dommes post under #findom and ask for tributes in public; ABC's triple j said in 2024 that "most paypigs are found on Twitter". NiteFlirt has a financial domination category, findommes share Throne wishlists, and Feeld's guidelines say the app "cannot provide space for financial domination".
Findom Finder is built for the private part. More than 2,800 members have joined as a domme or a sub, and ratings, ID badges and off-platform contact alerts help you check someone before anything is sent. How and when anything changes hands is settled between members; the site never touches a tribute.
Meet findommes or paypigs and finsubs, read are there any good findom sites, or weigh up the platforms in our findom site comparisons.
What people ask about findom
Is findom real?
Yes. Sociologist Keith Durkin documented online "money slavery" in the journal Deviant Behavior in 2007, and Channel 4, ITV2, MTV and VICE have made programmes about findom since. Fake accounts exist wherever money moves online, so check anyone before you send.
What is the opposite of findom?
The other half of the dynamic: the submissive who pays. Findom names the dominant side, while paypig, finsub, money slave and human ATM name the person who gives. Neither works alone, which is why members join Findom Finder as one side or the other.
Is findom cheating?
That depends on what you and your partner have agreed, and couples draw the line in different places. Findom usually involves no sex, as Wikipedia notes, but it does involve money and attention. Therapist Debra Kaplan lists hiding findom from a partner among the signs that it has become a problem.
Is there a findom documentary on Netflix?
We found no Netflix documentary or series episode about findom when we searched on 15 October 2026. The films that do exist include Channel 4's Findoms: Uncovered, the "Findom" episode of ITV2's Olivia Attwood: Getting Filthy Rich and VICE's short film Cash Slaves.
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