Around what age do you ideally want to have your first kid?

One of my managers just had their first child. This got me thinking, given we work so many hours each week in IB, I sometimes find it hard to imagine when I’d want a kid by.
 

When do you think you’d want your first kid by? 

What’s your ideal age for first kid??

21-24
1% (3 votes)
25-27
6% (27 votes)
28-30
28% (122 votes)
31-34
43% (191 votes)
35+
17% (76 votes)
Don’t want kids
5% (24 votes)
Total votes: 443
20 Comments
 

I just bought a house with my fiance and we are in no particular rush to have snot wiped all over the walls and ruin the peace and quiet of a house in Jersey with incessant crying and screaming. Out of all my friends who have had kids in their 20s there are really only 2 that I can think of who really seem to be into it and it's because they have enough family money that they can live the baby boomer trad life with a big house, white picket fence, etc. even though only the man works a 9-5 and brings in sub $100K a year.  

The Trad nuclear family is dead unless you got enough family money to simulate it in a far shittier economic environment. My fiance and I both have to work intense hours just to afford our house/vacations/etc. Too taxing mentally and economically to even begin to think about bringing a child in. Now if I could carry the family while working a simple 9-5 and she could spend all day child-rearing and house making the calculus would be different. But that aint the world we live in. 

 

My wife and I have discussed this and would ideally like to have children within the next 3 years (We're both 24, met freshman year and got married last year). 

For me it really boils down to whether or not we can provide for our children and make time for them. My wife is in dental school, and with me in IB we'd need to figure out a system where we could be there for our child. I am very against a nanny raising my own children.

I'd add that my parents are both 65, which definitely contributes to when I want to have children. I want my children to know their grandparents, and time isn't on our side if we wait much longer

 
Most Helpful

I am surprised that many people voted 28-30 lol you’d be an associate to early vp at that point. Why would that be the best time to have a child if you’re working a ton and living in a 1bd most likely at that stage?  

 
MonopolyMoney

Planning on 31/32

 Are you married?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

33-36. I grew up in a single-parent low-income household and that was a tramautic experience. I’m doing everything so that I don’t repeat that mistake for my next generation. I realize I would need to be a very high-income individual to afford my kids the life I want for them. Not necessarily private school but stuff like nice home, vacations, summer camps, future college tuition, etc. Currently 25, work in banking, and single with no prospects lol but def want to get married and have 3-4 kids.

 

Ideally 40. Currently 28 in audit now in London with £10k to my name but I went to top private schools so I have high expectations unfortunately. Ideally will start an MBA at 30, associate at 32, buy my first apartment by 35/36 and then buy an appropriate (given my upbringing/expectations) family home somewhere nice by 40. Even if I stay in the UK/Australia it won't be any earlier given the lower salaries (and I'd prioritise going on more holidays etc relative to the US). I'm fine with only having 1 kid, but I would like to have 1.

 

What 28 year olds in finance on here are looking to have kids that early? Echoing guy above that you’d be an associate or entering b school. 
 

I’m 29 and don’t know many people around my age who want kids and I have friends who work in many industries outside of finance (but based in nyc)

 

Right? I think a lot of posters are in college or are from Alabama or something. The only people I know getting married before 30 are people who met in (early) college. I don't think any educated man I know is going to have a kid before 34/35. It takes a long time to build a life (and make memories) that someone in a high paying profession (finance/ consulting/ law) would be happy with, especially in big cities. If your wife is working too then your expectations (and hers!) will only go up, it won't hasten any of this in my experience. I could be wrong though as most people I know are in London and I have personally started off majorly on the back foot (only started making >£40k for the first time a few months ago)

 

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