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Not starting a family is one of the best ways for millenials to cope with financial trouble.
One. You can save more efficiently.
Two. You have more time to better your skills and employment , which leads to greater earning potential.
Three. You have a whole lot more leisure time to focus on fitness and quality of life, which then save healthcare cost.
Four. You are less stressed, sleep in everyday, quiet weekends, long breakfasts, and more time socializing with friends. It increases your happiness.
Five. You may be able to take more vacations and travel, which refreshes you and recharges your battery.
Define "family."
Getting married has long been shown to be a huge factor in building wealth. With two incomes, but only sharing one roof, your housing expenditures decrease per person, as does the cost of health insurance.
More leisure time? Not if you split household duties. Having one person go to the grocery store while the other cleans the house saves time.
Less stressed... doubtful. Being married leads to more sex than what a single person has. As for sleeping in, my wife doesn't seem to have a problem doing that at all!
Now kids on the other hand, are a completely different story. They cost time and energy, worry and money. But getting married (which I would say is a family) is better than being single for financial reasons.
Not having children or having too few children upsets the demographic balance of the country. This will lead to further and intensified problems with things like Social Security, diminishing work force, etc.
The solution will be more immigration. This is the only thing that can save our economy, except few people are in favor of it. A decreasing population will lead to labor shortages, deflation in the housing market, fewer consumers and more.
OP has sound advice.
I am a Gen X-er. Happily married but no kids by choice. And of ALL mine and my wife's friends--a fairly sizable sample of about 30-40 individuals, there is only exactly ONE couple with kids who are reasonably happy. The rest of those who did have kids are either divorced or are living very stressful lives at least partly because of the kids--and grand kids in case of one friend.
My advice: Find a spouse/significant other, have no kids. Raise a puppy together. You will have a 'family' of your own but without the stress and expenses. A puppy is going to surprise you with love and intelligence--and a child-like dependency. And when you are really ready for kids then go for it.
Not starting a family is one of the best ways for millenials to cope with financial trouble.
One. You can save more efficiently.
Two. You have more time to better your skills and employment , which leads to greater earning potential.
Three. You have a whole lot more leisure time to focus on fitness and quality of life, which then save healthcare cost.
Four. You are less stressed, sleep in everyday, quiet weekends, long breakfasts, and more time socializing with friends. It increases your happiness.
Five. You may be able to take more vacations and travel, which refreshes you and recharges your battery.
It's dumb to have kids you can't afford, sure. But someone's gotta have kids, so that there will continue to be people!
As far as your last two points, these are matters of subjective personal preference, and thus there is no right or wrong answer.
As an additional note, looking only at your quality of life and not the potential children's quality of life (vs. not existing), is arguably too selfish. But this will quickly go into a discussion of moral philosophy and the relation between deontic and consequentialist ethics, so I'll spare it for now.
Nonetheless, if no one has kids, then Millennials' retirement money will be near-worthless in 50 years' time, because there will be a steeply reduced amount of goods and services to back the financial assets. In order to have goods and services you must have labor. If Millennials do not reproduce then in 50 years there will be insufficient young-bodied labor to produce and maintain things needed to continue living. There won't be enough doctors in 50 years if Millennials don't reproduce, so your Medicare will be worthless, even if you have it, as will any other health plan!
How about the next generation? Who will take over your jobs to keep the economy afloat?
Next generation? Do people in our ruling class care about that?
Yes it is increasingly the poor and the rich who have children. The rich can afford it and pass on their wealth. Why not? The poor can expect government handouts to fulfill their low aspiration life. Why not? Political parties in this country pander to both groups, for money and votes.
They want people to be dependent. Big business wants people to smoke the opium of cheap products. Big government wants people to smoke the opium of money given to you but you never know how to make it yourself.
They also want cheap labor. Cheap labor then turn into cheap votes. The middle class feed the growing poor class, while the rich don't do much. They are belittled as the biggest suckers. They are.
Next generation? Do the poor and the rich even care? And somehow middle class people should be the ones who care because we are patronized to be educated, civil, community minded, and whatever marketing terms used to fool, lure, and screw the middle class?
Not starting a family is one of the best ways for millenials to cope with financial trouble.
One. You can save more efficiently.
Two. You have more time to better your skills and employment , which leads to greater earning potential.
Three. You have a whole lot more leisure time to focus on fitness and quality of life, which then save healthcare cost.
Four. You are less stressed, sleep in everyday, quiet weekends, long breakfasts, and more time socializing with friends. It increases your happiness.
Five. You may be able to take more vacations and travel, which refreshes you and recharges your battery.
Six. Enjoy living in a self-centered, narcissistic society where people don't go through the training of raising children which teaches people to be more patient and selfless and self-sacrificing.
Seven. Miss out on the miracle of life, the joy of raising children which can only be experienced and not explained. You will never hear the sound of your baby laughing, the miraculous moment your little child begins to talk and walk, and yes, the sadness of the day they drive off to college.
Eight. Grow old, cold, and lonely, and have no children or grandchildren to come visit you, to do your shopping for you, to keep you company, to advocate for you when you can no longer speak for yourself.
Why not just have 6+ kids and get State aid? That's quite a tidy sum you'll get paid for. Millions of people use that as their business model. Apparently it works pretty well. Let the suckers who work and pay taxes pay for your kids.
Not starting a family is one of the best ways for millenials to cope with financial trouble.
One. You can save more efficiently.
Two. You have more time to better your skills and employment , which leads to greater earning potential.
Three. You have a whole lot more leisure time to focus on fitness and quality of life, which then save healthcare cost.
Four. You are less stressed, sleep in everyday, quiet weekends, long breakfasts, and more time socializing with friends. It increases your happiness.
Five. You may be able to take more vacations and travel, which refreshes you and recharges your battery.
Dude I wish I could rep this post 10 times! I'm in Generation Y as well, I have opted out of marriage, opted out of buying a house and opted out of creating children. This gives me TOTAL FREEDOM to move to different areas of the country or even internationally if there's better monetary opportunities or if I just don't like living in the area I am presently.
You can't really do this with a wife, kids and a house without taking some sort of financial loss as well as having a ton of STRESS as well. Plus marriage is a SCAM to financially reward Divorce Attorneys and Judges.
Quote:
sojourn traveller
Lucky you your parents didn't feel the same way. Maybe you're just selfish?
What I think is selfish is creating children without the means to take care of them, which based on data is how MOST children are created today. The poorest individuals have the most kids, because it allows them to obtain all types of additional tax benefits and welfare that aren't there with the kids not present. Talk about SELFISH. They create the kids and we (the tax payers) have to take care of them through welfare until they become young adults, then we have to pay their way through college (Pell Grant) if they don't go out and become welfare moms (in which we pay their welfare) or prison rats (in which we pay for their prison bed).
I MIGHT create kids at some point in the future, because I do believe it contributes to the Legacy I want to leave. But there are other ways to leave a Legacy on this Earth without creating kids.
Plus those talking about how this would be the FALL of mankind, well, mankind is already on the decline. By 2050 America (if it's still around) will be TOTALLY socialist, which means the freedoms we enjoyed will come to a hault.
Maybe it is a Bay Area thing or the friends I have.
None... not a single one had a child before 30 with most in their mid 30s and even having their first at 40.
I've posted before about High School sweethearts that went their separate ways... about 15 years after High School she was in town and visits his mother... he is working a 1000 miles away.
Anyway they end up getting back together and marry at 40 and want kids... no luck which is hard for her... she is charge nurse for labor and delivery... they even start a college fund...
So for his 50th birthday she takes the college fund and buys him a Mercedes SUV... his 3 third car ever. A few months later they are pregnant! with triplets!!!
Now the kids are 5 and she is as happy as can be... he not so much... he is happy enough... just wondering how at age 70 he could have 3 kids in college.
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