[alabastervlog]

Worse: the costs are front-loaded and (all but) must come early-ish in your life.

The opportunity cost—the shadow, if you will, that the cost of children casts on your future retirement savings—is enormous. It’s way larger than the nominal cost. Big ouch.

[gmoot]

Children used to be your retirement plan.

[steveBK123]

I feel like the costs are U-shaped.. 0-5 childcare, then 18-22 college right?

[tsimionescu]

College is quite cheap in many, many parts of the world where birth rates are still quite low - specifically in most of Europe, but also in Japan, Korea, at least compared to the USA.

[steveBK123]

Yes but those places (esp Europe) have youth unemployment / underemployment problems so similar issue with the next generation taking longer to establish themselves financially stable

[tsimionescu]

Sure, I was just pointing out that the costs of raising children are not U-shaped in those places, they are just front loaded. Even if young adults are financially dependent on their parents because of youth unemployment issues, they don't start costing their parents more when they're 18-20 than when they were, say, 12-14.

[kaibee]

6-17, the time to actually raise them.

It ain't like just because the kid 7 you can leave them at home while both parents go to work.

[steveBK123]

Right right, but purely mechanically in terms of number of hours in school / after school activities / clubs / sports.. you could most easily have two working parents during that age range.

[trust_bt_verify]

> ‘most easily’

Seems like you may be underestimating how much work kids, even at elementary age, can be.

[kristianp]

Many people tend to want to own their own place before having kids, then the mortgage costs mean they might only be able to afford to have one child. Each child means a parent stops working for at least few months, losing income. Housing costs are getting worse over time too in HCOL areas.

[alabastervlog]

Kinda. I dunno, I had a job and went to a cheap college.