When is the right time to have children?
Evolution has provided a clear answer – puberty.
For millions of years, we have followed Evolution’s instruction and the human species as a whole has flourished.
It worked flawlessly for millions of years because of the two fundamental statistics –
- Small population size
- Natural resources ownership is Mother Nature
We are living in an infinity universe. However within the infinity universe, there are finite universes.
Within each finite universe, there are finite niches – a spark of life will eventually outgrow a finite niche.
The earth is the finite niche and our species will outgrow it in the coming future.
Prior to the first formal organized civilization, all of earthly resources are available to anyone, anywhere for used with the underlying purpose of the propagation of the species.
The primordial rule of engagement is forever changed with the first official map of the world – effectively, all earth natural resources had been divided into boundaries of ownerships.
From that moment going forward, all accesses to the natural sources are defined in a very narrow range of the human’s potential.
Effectively as a civilization, we shifted the puberty window and the access to the primary resources to support a family into two different time frames.
At puberty, we are/were chomping our feet to reproduce. Yet, most of us understood that we needed resources to have children – a conflict arises between the internal biology and the external world.
If the following premise is accepted as the purpose of our existence, then the solution is quite logical and sound – designed with simple financial math.
All life forms are here on this earth to reproduce – the purpose!
Most of us will cross the puberty line in between 12 to 14 years of age. This puberty window has not changed for hundreds thousands of years – biological changes are infinitesimal and evolution is still in charge of these changes.
Yet at 12 to 14 years of age, we do not have the needed financial resources to live out the fantasies.
In most progressive and highly developed countries, there are labor laws that regulated the age of its citizens – in the United States, it is 16 years old.
Once you are allowed to participate in the labor market, this is the first real opportunity in the preparation of build a family of your own.
Yet overwhelmingly, especially in highly developed countries, most women first child-birth is in their late 20’s or early 30’s as of the first quarter of the 21st century.
That is twice or triple in ages when most of them had their first menstrual cycle – this far beyond the optimal window of opportunity to have healthy children.
Although the advancement in the area of medicine is expanding the optimal window of opportunity, but science still has a long road ahead.
The same natural logic applied to men who chased after an arbitrary financial number and completely ignore their biological calling.
Since we as a species have changed the rules in the game of life and clearly see the side unintended side effect.
Financial independence is an effective strategy for execution in the financial game where the rules of engagement have been changed for thousands of years – beginning with the first organized society.
All the strategies that lead to financial independence must lead to a meaningful purpose – a creation of a family.
The math for FI is very simple: Annual Living Expenses ÷ 0.04 = Financial Independence Target.
If you passed the FI marker, you are more financially secured than the 52 States financial budget.
High net worth is the fundamental component to the FI equation.
The other is Annual Life Style Expenses – the second critical component to FI.
Majority of the population still have many years before the crossing of the FI mile marker because of the Annual Life Style Expenses – ALSE prevents many you from crossing over the high net worth barrier.
On the average and with diligence, most people will achieve FI in 10 to 35 years. All your efforts will be governed by the mathematical equation above.
While you are executing the FI game plan, don’t lose sight of the principle premise of the FI journey – all life forms are here on this earth to reproduce and you are not an exception to this rule.
It is important to have goal and aspiration, but it is better to setup metrics that trigger actionable objectives.
One of the metric is – what is the best financial number to trigger the objective of having your first child?
This is a far better inquiry that the question “when is the right time to have children?”
This metric is logical and it eliminates all the emotions – it is objective and it can be manipulated in a simple financial math equation to fit everyone.
Let’s say you have decided to use the simple FI equation above: Annual Living Expenses ÷ 0.04 = Financial Independence Target.
You will not wait until you have crossed the FI mile marker before having your first child.
Most of you will take 10 to 35 years achieve FI – with the 10 years window is extremely challenged for 99 percents of the population.
The financial metric for pulling the trigger on having your first child is the after tax saving of one year worth of living.
In the mindset of many of you, having a child will financially slow you down or preventing you from to ever achieve FI.
On the contrary, the joy and the inspiration once you have a child may give you an additional super-charge that will propel you across the FI mile marker faster than you can plan and imagine.
It did for me.
Let’s play the game of life!
