A question asked by someone on a message board I read was “Will I save a lot of money by not having children?” Most parents will say yes you will. But of course you don’t get intangible benefits.
But as someone without kids, I gotta say I wonder? Because truthfully when you don’t have kids you have way more money to spend on yourself and your hobbies. AND you don’t have any time constraints or physical limitations to spending your extra moolah. Experience speaking, it’s a lot easier to go away for the weekend and plan last minute trips, buy what you want without kids and lot of excess money. You can buy the latest cell phone, clothes, or try out the hottest new restaurant in town.
So yes you might save more by not having children, but you also might not. Most of our friends who are DINKS or SINKS, spend wildly. And those who have had or are having children recently, have told us that upon becoming pregnant they became a lot more frugal. Mostly it was awareness that they had to provide for someone else and be a responsible “adult”. They couldn’t mess around anymore. So I’m not entirely convinced that not having kids makes you richer overall and a better saver.
It could be that people with families don’t spend money on things like travelling and eating out. But instead they spend it on a bigger home, car, private school, etc for the betterment of the family. So who really saves more? Those with or without children? Weigh in.
11 responses so far ↓
1 laughing808 // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I think you pretty much said it all. But I wouldn’t neccessarily say no kids equate to rich a better choice of words might be well off, not that there’s that much of a difference.
I don’t have kids, but I’m still about two paychecks from poverty. I use restraint with regards to spending, for the most part, but I surely wouldn’t consider myself rich because I have no kids.
2 Ashley @ Wide Open Wallet // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Who saves more is going to depend on the person. But I think not having kids gives you more options. My husband and I don’t have the option to take a weekend getaway and we still can’t save that money. If that makes sense.
3 Kristy // Jul 30, 2008 at 5:28 am
I agree with Ashley. It completely depends on the person. We actually save more now that we have kids but there are a couple of reasons for that.
We both make more money since DD turned 2 this year
Because of making more money it allows us to maximize our retirement funds.
We have become more aware as we have gotten older that we need to save a significant amount of money in order to retire.
I do see what you are saying though about how we may travel more frequently if we did not have children. It definitely is easier! I honestly think that if we didn’t have kids we would not be saving anymore than we are right now. However, we save about 33% of our gross income and don’t feel like we need to save anymore for retirement.
4 fitwallet // Jul 30, 2008 at 8:15 am
At this point in my life, having kids seems financially impossible. We would have to completely change our spending habits and pay down most of our non-mortgage debt to make it work. In our area, you pretty much have to pay for private school unless you want your kids going to the city schools (no thanks!), so we would probably end up selling our home and moving elsewhere, too.
I think having kids must give focus to financial goals though, because I’ve heard several people say, “you’re never financially ready to have kids, you just make it work.” I’ll probably never know, because I don’t plan on having kids…
5 Livingalmostlarge // Jul 30, 2008 at 10:41 am
How’s this? Most people say you should be saving a lot more without kids, but my point is I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. While each scenario is different, there are too many people who get focused on finances because they have kids that makes me think it’s not necessarily easier to save without them.
6 Kristy // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:51 am
I think that DH and I would be saving about the same without kids. We save plenty and spend enough so I don’t think it would change. Instead of paying for daycare and diapers we would probably just eat out more frequently and take an extra vacation.
I wonder if it has anything to do with age? I know that we waited a few years to have children and now that we are older we want to save more than when we were younger. Plus, we decided that we want the option of retiring early if we want to.
7 Moneymonk // Jul 30, 2008 at 12:52 pm
“I think having kids must give focus to financial goals though”
I agree with fitwallett, I became more focus when I had a kids, when I was single I was spending my money freely and had no goals
Now I have a house, college fund, life insurance, will and cash in the bank. I also have a stock portfolio
I never thought of having those things before
8 devil // Jul 30, 2008 at 3:15 pm
DH and I don’t have kids and have never wanted them. We are much, much better prepared for an early retirement than anyone we know with kids. And most of those people make at least twice as much as we do.
Of course, it’s easier to save more without kids than with them. With each birth/adoption you’re bringing in another person to support (who can’t contribute financially).
People without kids who blow all their money and don’t save for a rainy day have NO excuses. At least the children provide an excuse for being broke all the time.
9 katmaxx // Jul 30, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Well, I have a crowd at my house and one modest income and we still save money( 5kids). My oldest son remarked the other day that dad always has a secret pile of money put away for when things break and he does by using a budget and making us live simply. I will say that a large crowd of kids and their friends provides plenty of drama so you get free intertainment at home sometimes. Also it gives you intense focus on taking care of needs and dropping the fluff. Kids really can be raised inexpensivly and they are more appreciative when treats are less frequent. One last thought is that when you raise them well kids as adults can really be a support and help to you. My older friends who have good relationships with their adult children know that if they really need help it is available to them. But that doesn’t happen without love and lots of time with them when they are young.
10 Patience // Aug 2, 2008 at 9:43 am
I never thought before about how having kids can help you save money, or at least prompt you to try to do so. Those articles that come out claiming that raising a child costs something like $14 million always make DH and me laugh because they are such BS. You don’t *have* to buy a brand-new minivan just because you had a baby. After our fourth child was born, we added a third seat to the back of our Volvo wagon and made do with that for SIX years before finally buying a van (with cash of course.) We live in Virginia where there is a new program in which any student at a Virginia community college who achieves an associates degree with a 3.5 GPA is guaranteed admission to the University of Virginia. We are taking advantage of this with our oldest child–he is skipping the last two years of high school, is enrolled full-time at our community college, and will be enter UVA as a third-year at age 18, and we will be saving thousands of dollars buy paying the very cheap community college tuition for the first two years of his college career. I don’t know if we will go this route with all our kids, but it gives me peace of mind to know we have this option available.
11 LivingAlmostLarge // Aug 7, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I cringe when I read how much a kid costs. I think it depends on the circumstances of the parent. I had growing up no new clothes ever. I wore boy clothes for a good 5+ years of my life because my uncle had 3 boys, one only 7 months older than me. So my mom did not pay a cent for clothes, but unfortunately I looked like a boy.
Oh well. She said it was free and beggars can’t be choosers. So I was well dressed in 3rd generation hand me down clothes since his older brother was 14 months above him.
So children are only as expensive as you can afford.
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