Financial regrets about parenthood?

This is the first piece I have ever written for HumbleDollar, because frankly I don’t have much financial nous to preach – particularly to a congregation that I assume to be, on average, better off than I.

I’m here with a question, not a pearl of wisdom, and I’m asking out of genuine curiosity.

Both my net worth and my retirement savings are around the 80th percentile for Americans. That’s way higher than I ever expected to be, given that my first career, TV news, is known for low pay, and I was dead broke at 37. I was fortunate to rescue myself financially by finding a lucrative niche in public relations, by buying primary homes that exploded in resale value, and by not screwing up too badly in the stock market.

But I also credit a decision I made at the early age of 12… that I never, ever wanted to be a parent.

I knew deep down that I’d be a dad just like mine – impatient, intimidating, angry, stressed. I knew I wouldn’t enjoy fatherhood, and I knew I’d make offspring miserable, so I had the wisdom to cross off the idea before my Bar Mitzvah.

I have never regretted it for an instant. It cost me relationships in my 20s and 30s with women who naturally wanted kids, but in retrospect I wasn’t mature enough for marriage then anyway. (My wife thinks it’s still an open question as I circle the big 7-0.)

I have also, of course, massively benefited financially. My grocery cart was always eligible for the 15 Items Or Less lane. I never spent a dime on private schools, dance lessons, hockey skates or soccer tournament fees. The massive expenditures faced by most parents for day care and college were absent from my budget. And the most difficult circumstances of parenthood I’ve seen in friends’ families – counseling, drug rehab, legal fees, medical bills, launch failure “boomerang” – passed me by.

Such calculations are now a major issue in our society. The most recent annual American Family Survey found 70% of respondents saying that raising children is too expensive to handle. Another published survey found 43% of Gen Zs and Millenials opting out of parenthood for financial reasons, and yet another (Pew Research) found 36% of childless Americans planning to stay that way because they can’t afford a child.

So, parents on this forum, what say you? Strictly on a financial basis, do you have any regrets about reproducing? Do you ever look back at what you spent on your kids and wonder what your life would have been like had you made a different decision?