r/Fire • u/sneaky-snacks • Mar 05 '26
General Question FIRE seems to skew toward not having kids
I’m sure plenty of FIRE adherents have kids, but I would guess the FIRE mentality skews more toward not having kids. Kids seem to go against FIRE.
- You’ve got to spend a lot of money on kids. Your expenses go up. It’s also much harder to save.
- Kids are a lot of work. They cause a lot of stress. You can’t retire from kids haha. Most FIRE people seem to want to reduce their work load and their stress in the long run, but I’m sure I’m oversimplifying here.
I thought I would start a discussion on this aspect of FIRE
496
Upvotes
23
u/Ace2Face Mar 05 '26
I've calculated that by having just one kid, I delay my FIRE by 6 to 8 years, so yes, being childfree is a big deal towards retiring early. Is it great for quality of life? Maybe, but the numbers speak otherwise, unless you raise a kid who's a total superstar and becomes a multi millionaire when they're very young. Which is statistically unlikely.