Not having children to save money

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The discussion centers on the financial implications of choosing not to have children, with many participants noting that raising a child can cost over $200,000. Some argue that forgoing children allows for greater financial freedom, such as purchasing a vacation home or investing in personal pursuits. However, others caution against making the decision solely based on financial considerations, emphasizing the emotional and relational aspects of parenthood. Experiences shared highlight that many who choose to remain childless do not regret their decision, while others reflect on the fulfillment that children can bring. Ultimately, the conversation underscores the complexity of the decision to have children, balancing financial, personal, and emotional factors.
  • #151
Dale said:
No. The creepiness rule is purely age based. It has no bearing on wealth.

Many studies point to the fact that wealth leads to a larger dating pool.
 
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  • #152
FallenApple said:
Many studies point to the fact that wealth leads to a larger dating pool.
You are confusing “odds of success” with “dating pool”. Wealth does not increase the number of available women, only the likelihood of a positive response.
 
  • #153
FallenApple said:
Many studies point to the fact that wealth leads to a larger dating pool.
While I don't refute that, the point still remains: by how much?

As I have pointed out multiple times:
Your age will shrink the pool dramatically. Wealth will factor in - by having the pool shrink slightly less dramatically.
 
  • #154
Dale said:
You are confusing “odds of success” with “dating pool”. Wealth does not increase the number of available women, only the likelihood of a positive response.

So wealth only increases the likelihood of positive response within the dating pool determined by one's age?

Does wealth not also change the pool itself?
 
  • #155
DaveC426913 said:
While I don't refute that, the point still remains: by how much?

As I have pointed out multiple times:
Your age will shrink the pool dramatically. Wealth will factor in - by having the pool shrink slightly less dramatically.

The graph shows that the pool peaks at age 50. That's a long ways away. That means the pool is actually growing with age, not shrinking.
 
  • #156
FallenApple said:
The graph shows that the pool peaks at age 50. That's a long ways away. That means the pool is actually growing with age, not shrinking.
No. That's everyone.

Scroll down to the interactive visualizer.
If you're looking for women, with a job, and any ethnicity, the pool peaks at 38.
 
  • #157
FallenApple said:
Does wealth not also change the pool itself?
You can be rich as Elon Musk, but that doesn’t make dead women live. In principle you could use your money to fund divorces. But barring that, no wealth does not alter the size of the pool.
 
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  • #158
Dale said:
no wealth does not alter the size of the pool.
It just modifies the subset of the pool that are interested... as does education, and personality, and... ad infinitum
 
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  • #159
Tom.G said:
It just modifies the subset of the pool that are interested... as does education, and personality, and... ad infinitum
That is a good point. The more wealth the better. A larger subset of the a restricted pool( restricted by age presumably) is much better a smaller subset of that restricted pool.

The effect of education could be could be confounded by wealth since wealth is directly correlated with education.
 
  • #160
Dale said:
You can be rich as Elon Musk, but that doesn’t make dead women live. In principle you could use your money to fund divorces. But barring that, no wealth does not alter the size of the pool.

Elon Musk dated a very attractive actress more than 10 years younger than him.

While his 100 hr work weeks probably caused some relationship issues, his pool is clearly vast.

Even assuming age determines the pool, the effective pool is really what really matters.

I think being extraordinarily wealthy can only help with the odds. The only negative side effects of that wealth is what it took to get there. In Elon's case, he just works too much, which comes hand in hand with being wealthy I suppose.
 
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  • #161
FallenApple said:
Elon Musk dated a very attractive actress more than 10 years younger than him.
She was already in his dating pool since he was older than 34 at the time. His money was not relevant to that. His money did not expand the pool to include her, their respective ages meant that she was already in his dating pool.

Dating outside your age-defined pool is considered “creepy”. Being rich doesn’t make underage involvement any less creepy. So the same demographics pointed out by others above apply regardless of wealth.
 
  • #162
FallenApple said:
Elon Musk dated a very attractive actress more than 10 years younger than him.

I know three couples where the age difference is greater than 10 years (including my wife and me, 11 years), and another couple where the age difference is 8 years. While all of the people in these couples are professional, none are nearly as wealthy as Elon Musk. All of the couples have been married for at least 15 years, and all of them have kids.
 
  • #163
Dale said:
She was already in his dating pool since he was older than 34 at the time. His money was not relevant to that. His money did not expand the pool to include her, their respective ages meant that she was already in his dating pool.

Dating outside your age-defined pool is considered “creepy”. Being rich doesn’t make underage involvement any less creepy. So the same demographics pointed out by others above apply regardless of wealth.

I’m not saying underage involvement is ok. It clearly isn’t. But I think it’s ok for a man in his mid thirties to date a woman in her mid twenties. The relative difference isn’t too great. Similarly, a man in his 40s isn’t too far in age from a woman in her 30s if we look at the relative difference compared to absolute difference.
 
  • #164
FallenApple said:
But I think it’s ok for a man in his mid thirties to date a woman in her mid twenties. The relative difference isn’t too great.
Sure. That is already accounted for in the demographics above.
 
  • #165
FallenApple said:
I’m not saying underage involvement is ok. It clearly isn’t. But I think it’s ok for a man in his mid thirties to date a woman in her mid twenties. The relative difference isn’t too great. Similarly, a man in his 40s isn’t too far in age from a woman in her 30s if we look at the relative difference compared to absolute difference.
So, let's say we grant everything you posit.

  1. You start looking at, say, 40.
  2. Your range is 27 to 66.
  3. Of that pool, x% will be interested in you by default, giving subset y as the set of all women who want to date you.
  4. Then you reveal this fabulous wealth that you're going to acquire (through an as-yet undetermined, but surefire method of beating inflation :wink:).
  5. Now, y will increase by a factor of w, which is some value > 1.0. (We have very different ideas about that value. ) This the subset of women who are only now interested in you - specifically because of your money - that were not interested in you before.
  6. Now you meet a woman who is in the y*w category.
In other words, this woman had no interest in dating you, until she learned about your fabulous wealth.

Are you OK with this? Will you marry her? Have children with her? Knowing that she was not interested in you until she learned you had money?

I strongly suggest adding some steps:
5b. Introduce a prenuptial agreement.
5c. w will be reduced to a number very very close to 1.0.

So, what have you accomplished? You will have a number of women interested in you y*w, where w is very small. This is the subset of women who were not interested in you when they thought you had no money, then became interested in you once they learned you had money, then stayed interested in you when they found out they couldn't take half of it in a divorce.

In fact, w might well be negative. A percentage of women who were genuinely interested in you, regardless of your money, will be put off by the presentation of a prenup. Prenups aren't about money - they're about trust. And you've just told this girl who is (or was) in love with you that you don't trust her.
 
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  • #166
FallenApple said:
Becoming wealthy is my top priority

That said then you should not have children or even marry.
 
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  • #167
gleem said:
That said then you should not have children or even marry.

Financial security is extremely important.
 
  • #168
FallenApple said:
Financial security is extremely important.
It is. And besides, when you are on your deathbed you can just hire an acting troupe to come tell you how much they will miss you and how great of an impact you have had on their lives and all of the usual stuff. You can even have them bring young child actors to play the role of your grandchildren and reminisce about fishing trips. And you can pretend that the tears are real and that you just have a bit of memory loss.

Oh, and I am sure that the young sexy soon to be widow who was only interested in you because of your money will be genuinely sad that her financially driven actions will now pay out so handsomely.
 
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  • #169
FallenApple said:
Financial security is extremely important.
Yes, but that's a very different statement from your previous one.
 
  • #170
Dale said:
It is. And besides, when you are on your deathbed you can just hire an acting troupe to come tell you how much they will miss you and how great of an impact you have had on their lives and all of the usual stuff. You can even have them bring young child actors to play the role of your grandchildren and reminisce about fishing trips. And you can pretend that the tears are real and that you just have a bit of memory loss.

Oh, and I am sure that the young sexy soon to be widow who was only interested in you because of your money will be genuinely sad that her financially driven actions will now pay out so handsomely.

I understand that the clock is ticking. Not much I can do about that. Hopefully I can rest and focus on serious relationships after one decade. If not, then I'm ok with being alone on my deathbed. Children are luxuries, not necessarily necessities. Would I be slightly disappointed if I leave no legacy? Sure. Would it kill me? Probably not.

I've been through several relationships and it almost feels staged. When things are peachy financially, life is great, and when not, well they'll just drop you. If something was so fragile to begin with, then one has to ask the question of whether any of it was real in the first place.
 
  • #171
russ_watters said:
Yes, but that's a very different statement from your previous one.

What was the previous one? I posted this thread months ago.
 
  • #172
Dale said:
you can just hire an acting troupe

Thank you for not writing "troop".
 
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  • #173
Vanadium 50 said:
Thank you for not writing "troop".
@FallenApple can hire an acting troupe to troop past his deathbed...
 
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  • #174
FallenApple said:
When things are peachy financially, life is great, and when not, well they'll just drop you.

This seems to have been mentioned a few times in this thread. This suggests to me at least some element of financial instability.on your part. Do you have a problem maintaining a consistent or predicable financial situation?
 
  • #175
gleem said:
This seems to have been mentioned a few times in this thread. This suggests to me at least some element of financial instability.on your part. Do you have a problem maintaining a consistent or predicable financial situation?

Not anymore, lesson learned. But it is a bit of a disappointment to know how things really are. This is why I don't believe much in family anymore and decided to put all my efforts into being completely financially secure and then eventually very wealthy. I decided to work all the time and to cut time consuming social interactions such as dating completely out of my life. I've noticed that I'm more productive this way.
 
  • #176
FallenApple said:
This is why I don't believe much in family anymore

Its a good thing your parents did.

FallenApple said:
But it is a bit of a disappointment to know how things really ar

Luckily most of us don"t. You know it is family that drives the economy and make people rich.So you've got everything worked out. So what was the point of this thread?
 
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  • #177
FallenApple said:
What was the previous one? I posted this thread months ago.
What you just replied to to modify earlier today, but originally stated on Monday:

"Becoming wealthy is my top priority..."

It is not equivalent to:
"Financial security is extremely important."
 
  • #178
Mark44 said:
@FallenApple can hire an acting troupe to troop past his deathbed...
Acting troupe troops?

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  • #179
Ah... the old trope of hiring a troupe to troop past your deathbed and say they'll miss you.
 
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  • #180
I can't believe that I missed how long this thread has been regurgitating. Time to end it's misery. Closed.
 
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