The Decision to Have Children: A Financial Decision, but Other Factors Revealed During An In-Class Discussion

There are three very large financial decisions in life, in terms of the level of expenditures undertaken over the course of one’s lifetime:

• Whether to own a home, and if so how much to spend on the home.
• Whether to own a car/truck, and if so how long to keep it, how much to spend on it, etc.
• Whether to have children.

Each of these decisions involves hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of one’s lifetime. Other than one’s choice of career(s), these may be the most impactful decisions in terms of one’s personal finances.

In a recent discussion in my Personal Finance classes at Western Kentucky University, the class discussion of the issue of whether to have children took some interesting turns.

• First, and somewhat predictably, nearly all of the students were concerned about the costs of child care. Many speculated that working – for many in a two-parent household – would likely not be worthwhile during the early years of their children’s development – i.e., until the children went to elementary school.
• To my surprise, a substantial minority of students stated that they did not intend to have children, at all. This led to further discussions about “why” – which revealed answers such as:
  • “I desire independence.”
  • “I don’t want to get married, and tie myself down to someone else.” (I observed, as well, that those who lacked the desire to have children also tended to not want to get married. At the same time, the importance of a two-parent household – in terms of support for each other, financially and otherwise, when a child is born, was stressed by a later guest speaker in my class.)
  • “The costs of just living – owning a home, having a car, food – have increased too much. Health care costs are huge. Many younger couples just can’t afford to have children. Especially if, as you (the professor) has suggested, they are saving 18% of their (gross) income each year.”
  • “I don’t want to bring a child into this world.” I inquired further, and was stunned by students’ answers – and in reading the following please realize that most of my students are from very conservative backgrounds, and it was the conservative students who often voiced these observations:
    • “I don’t want my child to go to school and possibly be a victim of gun violence there.”
    • “If my child turns out to be LBGTQ, I don’t want them to be ostracized by society, as it seems to be happening increasingly, now.”
    • “Anti-semitism, racism, and religious intolerance all seem to be increasing. Why would I want to bring a child into a world of hate?”
    • “There is so much division in society today. Why would I want to have a child, when neighbors no longer speak to each other?”
    • “Too many people are rejecting facts (science), and just receive all their news from [social media]. I don’t want to expose anyone else to this.”
    • “Climate change is going to make entire regions of the planet uninhabitable. Where would my child live their life?”

I would further observe that I’ve had several students who have come up to me over the past few months, questioning whether their life will be as good as their parents. They saw the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis (2007-2009) and its effects on family members. They endured the commencement of COVID. They have seen the impact of recent inflation upon their parents, and themselves. They hear about the federal deficits, and federal debt exceeding $30 trillion, and the potential insolvency of Social Security and Medicare. And, they fear the burden of student loans, that so many college students are incurring today.

In essence, too many college students today are not optimistic about their financial futures. The desire to not have children – and not get married – appear to be related to a degree. And while financial fears are a large concern, it appeared (at least during my classes) that an equally important cause of the lack of desire to form families resulted from non-financial fears, about how American society is developing.

There has been a lot of academic research exploring these trends, which I will not attempt to summarize here.

But, to me, the results obtained lead me to ask questions. Are the positions staked out by the “far left” or the “far right” in our society, today, leading to negative consequences – in terms of the mental health of our youth, and young adults, and in terms of the undermining the formation of new family units with children? Are some of the positions taken, or the lack of action in addressing concerns (school shootings, federal debt, Social Security and Medicare trust funds, prescription drug costs and high medical care costs as a percent of GDP) – by our political leaders and others involved in the public discussion of these issues – in turn the cause of a breakdown in other aspects of our society (i.e., surging mental health issues, suicides among our young populations, lack of desire to get married and to have children)?

I don’t possess the answers to these questions. But, they remain food for thought.