Do you know how much a year daycare costs?
The average is $12,000 a year.
Twelboo dousand dollars.
That's how much. $12,000. That's baby talk for, "That's expensive."
If I could afford to have kids, I would have kids. I would have a whole little village of young "Whites", because that's my last name.
Now you might not be interested in having kids, BUT
If people aren't having kids because they can't afford them, then our population won't grow.
If our population doesn't grow, then it's going to be hard for our economy to grow.
So I'm going to figure out how to afford kids.
These kids are super cute.
But they have no idea how much they are draining their parents' bank accounts.
It's going to cost them approximately $282,000 just to raise this little one from birth to age 18.
Maybe that's why American birth rates are at an all-time low.
Since 2007 they have dropped 10 percent.
So think about it. If you want to have kids,
how do you pay for them?
Carmen Rita Wong is the author of two best-selling financial advice books,
a former professor of behavioral economics at NYU,
and a mom. So I want her advice.
- A toast to what will be a great time. - Salut!
If I could afford to have kids right now, I would. I'm 23.
You know, I get to grow up with my kid.
Still young enough to slapbox with him and all that good stuff.
But, that said, I can afford my expenses, I can afford my mom's expenses.
-That's what my responsibility is right now. -Right, right.
Anything else would throw a monkey wrench in what I'm doing right now.
So when is the right time to have a kid?
When you want one. Period
Don't forget that this is a human being.
And what you want to get this kid, and how much it's going to cost, really depends on you.
For my mom's generation, and for her parents, and my pops' parents
- it was easier to raise a kid cost-wise -Mmhmm.
Our incomes have stayed the same for 20 years,
but the cost of living shot through the roof.
So the financial strain of having kids, for your generation, is bigger than ever.
Which is why we see the birthrate going way down
and why we are seeing the age people are getting married and having children go way up.
What does something like that do to our economy?
The population growth is going to go down and we are going to live a lot longer.
So things are going to have to change,
because we are not going to have the population to support...the older...folks...you know.
So then how do you make it work?
You have to see the people around you
as your community and as your network.
There's a thing in behavioral economics called 'psychic cost'.
When you're stressed out as a parent, if you have this network and this community around
where you can say, "You know what, I need a minute. Can you take my kid?"
If you lessen the strain of having a kid, the psychic costs around you,
you will make better financial decisions.
I like Carmen's advice.
The community she's describing reminds me a lot of the one that I was raised in.
Now I'm going back to chat with Nneka and Andres: real life experts.
Thank you, guys, for opening your home to us. So you all have four kids.
Where they planned?
Well...we...we uh...planned on going out that night.
-And uh... -Okay.
And then just ended up with a baby?
We knew we wanted a big family.
Okay.
But we did not say,
"Well we're going to do this and hope nine months from now that we have a bundle of joy."
When it was crunch time and it was gonna happen, how did you prepare?
- We worked a lot of overtime. - A lot of overtime.
- The hustle is real in this household. - The hustle is real.
Did you do anything to cut back on your expenses?
We were a two-car household for a very long time.
But we decided to cut back and get rid of one car.
- Vacations. God, vacations. - Vacations. Aww man.
Do you ever miss them?
We take lots of staycations [Right.] as a couple.
The kids get to go away a lot more than we do.
How important has networking been with you guys and raising your family?
You want to build relationships because for those times,
when he's working or I'm at work,
you have to rely on other parents to help.
- Be friendly, because you just never know. - You just never know who you're gonna meet.
Thank you very much. I have taken some notes from two awesome parents.
As we make delicious tacos, it sinks in.
There's no silver bullet or magic act that makes kids affordable.
What I hear from Carmen, Nneka, and Andre is get ready to hustle harder.
Make big sacrifices.
And while you're at it, try to make some friends, cause you're gonna need them.
If you're like me, you don't like asking people for help.
I get it. But if the way to afford kids is being a better friend to your neighbor,
then I'm okay with that.