Quote from: K-Dog on Nov 04, 2023, 01:23 PMSeriously, why aren't millennials having kids?

Who can afford to?  An average home in America is over $500K.  At $25 an hour it will take ten years to earn that much.  Add terms of a mortgage on that, and more than half of what a man earns goes into the house for thirty years.

There is enough left over for one dog. And not a big one.

Forget the dog.

A $500000 mortgage with a 10% down payment (from your generous boomer parents?) of $50,000 on a 30 year mortgage with interest rate of 7.72% gives you 360 monthly payments of $3214 each.  Total cost to you over 30 years?  $1,115.040.  Your gross earnings if you make $50K/year for 30 years?  $1.5M.  Thus leaving you about $385K, or about $1100/mo.  Then you have everything else.

Everything else: income tax, heat, electricity, water, waste removal, internet, cell phone, car loan, car insurance, gas, food.

Clearly, he's outta cash by the time he gets through the first 4 on that list, if he even makes it that far.  He never goes out to the movies or a concert or even to a fast food restaurant.  No vacations, ever.  Forget kids, he can't afford the wife, he can't even afford to date someone to ask to marry. lol.

Not to mention, a 10% downpayment is insufficient for a 7.72% mortgage rate, that takes a standard 20% DP.  Doubtful your Boomer parents have a $100K layiing around to hand you as a gift, after the giftss they gave you to pay for college.  Wait...did I forget your Student Loan payments?  lol.

Now, obviously said prospective family man needs his salary to start jacking up from his starting pay of $25/hr, but in today's gig economy, how many of those job are out there?

Of course though, this isn't the 1950s with June Cleaver staying home while Ward goes to work, mom works also, so now you're at $100K, and one of you has a 2nd job for another 20 hrs/week, call it family income of $125K, you might squeak it out if you never get sick and have to go to the doctor, or miss work for 10 days because you got Covid.  Wait... did I forget medical insurance?  roflmaopimp.

The whole bizness is so FUBAR I'm amazed anybody is having any kids at all.  It's just insane.

RE