My partner and I make just over $100k pretax. There is no way we can afford kids. Rent + bills is roughly $4000/month and we have a combined $130k in student loan debt. The cheapest home we could buy in my area is $450k.
To have kids in this day and age with the collapse of civilization looming due to climate change is to be a selfish monster.
Yeah forget extra crippling debt and responsibility. I don’t even want to be here, why would I inflict that on someone else?
A friend of mine makes a little over 80k, his spouse is working minimum wage. They have to move from renting a three bedroom house to a one bedroom apartment just to be able to put savings away to potentially have a child in a few years.
My spouse and I together are millenials making around $150k a year, and we essentially bought my parent’s house for cheap when they were scammed and could no longer afford it. Even with the “leg up” of being homeowners, we chose to be DINKs because it would be too much of a financial strain to live any sort of decent life otherwise.
We’re in good health now, but living in the USA we have to save and prepare for the worst because if that were to change, we are on our own. And we have to prepare to take care of our parents, too.
dinks say they can’t afford kids