Starting a family a ‘luxury’ as cost of living bites

The survey also found that 31 per cent of working investors aged over 55 are delaying retirement, while 20 per cent are delaying medical expenses.

“It makes sense, once you look at [the economy] closely. Things have changed pretty quickly with interest rates moving and the way the markets have played out,” says Stake founder and chief executive Matt Leibowitz.

“Anecdotally, it seems to be pretty reflective of where people are at.”

The survey, conducted in May, found that 44 per cent of cohabiting couples aged 18-24 are delaying starting families for financial reasons, along with 35 per cent of cohabiting 25-34-year-olds. Additionally, 35 per cent of investors say getting married is an unnecessary financial expense.

Glen Hare, financial adviser at Fox & Hare, says about 85 per cent of his Millennial clients are interested in starting a family, but are “really stressed” about the finances involved.

“When we’re starting a family, the reality is the household is going down to one income for a period, depending on the parental support of the employer,” he says.

“When you look at statistics around mortgage stress, the general consensus is you don’t want to be paying any more than 30 per cent of your income on a mortgage or housing.”

With rising interest rates and rents, he says some are contributing up to 50 per cent of their income to debt and rent.

”This is having a huge impact on people’s ability to live the lifestyle that they’ve aspired to have [and] that family home, but then also, start supporting a family.”

‘Trade-off conversation’

Several of his clients have chosen to delay families by about six months after being hit with rising interest rates, while others are choosing to rent and have a family, rather than buy a house, he adds.

“There’s a bit of a trade-off conversation around whether it’s worth starting a family and living in an apartment or not having a family and buying a house and being able to travel more.”

Sydney couple Mary and Jane, whose names have been changed, have chosen to forgo an expensive wedding and are budgeting about $30,000 to undergo partner IVF.

Mary, in her late 20s, and Jane, in her mid-30s, decided to begin a family about four years ago and have been saving ever since.

“At the beginning of the year, we sat down and said that there are a couple of really exciting life things ahead. In the last couple of years we’ve bought an apartment, and now the next step is to get engaged and start a family,” says Mary.

“We were simultaneously planning a wedding and thinking about starting a family. But then we realised that even a budget wedding is around the same cost as IVF, around $30,000, and we realised that we can’t choose both.”

Mary says she’s at the stage in her life where her big life goals have become an exercise of figuring out what they can and can’t live without, and while it’s still possible to achieve the traditional milestones, they cost a lot more time and money.

“I’m part of a generation that feels like the ‘she’ll be right’ mentality doesn’t apply to such big life decisions anymore.”