For decades, having children was something many Americans did before they started thinking seriously about retirement.
That’s becoming less common
Americans are waiting longer than ever to start families. The average age (1) of first-time mothers reached a record 27.5 years in 2023, up from 21.4 in 1970. While delaying parenthood can offer greater financial stability, it also means more parents are finding themselves squeezed between two expensive goals at once: paying for their children’s future while trying to secure their own.
Must Read For Noel Keomanila and Ed Myrick, those competing priorities arrived at the same time. By the time their son was born, Myrick had already left a banking career to care for his aging parents and was rebuilding his professional life as a real estate investor. “We get to be involved, present and part of our kid’s life in so many ways we wouldn’t and couldn’t have before,” he told the Wall Street Journal (2). But what happens when the years traditionally devoted to building retirement savings become the same years you’re paying for a child’s future?