Married with Kids? Now, Not So Much
Article published in Northampton Living
(November 2023)
As her parents listened from the other room, five-year-old Nancy chattered to her family of dolls: Mommy and Daddy, little Clara, and Clara’s younger brother David.
Several decades later, they hear something quite different from their daughter. Nancy, 35, has lived happily with her boyfriend of 5 years. Neither wants to tie the knot. Now she mentions that they don’t want kids. So much for Clara and David.
When we launched our financial planning firm in 2002, few of our clients had stories like this. They hoped for a comfortable retirement, for family support they could count on in old age, and to someday pass on what remained of their wealth to the next generation.
Times Have Changed
Twenty-one years later, a growing number of clients have situations like these:
Their children waited until they were older to start families, so they have limited bandwidth to help their elderly parents.
Their family is a hybrid of adult children and stepchildren, spouses, unmarried partners, and ex-partners.
There’s no third or fourth generation to plan for – or to help the aging parents.
The client is a Solo, one of a growing segment of older adults who, by choice or by chance, are aging without a partner or adult children. Today, about one quarter of our clients fits this profile.
Blame it on the Boomers
According to the Center for Retirement Research, Boomers married later and are more likely to divorce than their parents’ generation. As a result, a woman born between 1954 and 1959 will spend 51% of her adult life married, compared to women in her mother’s generation, who will be married for 69% of their lives.
Just 3.9% of women born between 1931 and 1941 never married, compared to 12.2% percent of female Boomers born between 1954 and 1959.
According to the Administration for Community Living, 6% of the youngest Boomers, born between 1954 and 1966, was childless in 2018, compared to 15.9% of those born between 1944 and 1953.
The Institute for Family Studies reports that 27% of Boomers 60 or older live alone.
Among Millennials, marriage and fertility rates have declined further:
Almost one-third of women today have never married by age 35. Fifteen percent of 50-year-old women have never married.
The Pew Research Center reports that among adults without children ages 18 to 49, nearly half are not likely to have them.
The Future is Still Yours
These scenarios have implications for financial planning: Should you move somewhere smaller or closer to family, or plan to age in place? How much help will family members be able to provide? How much money will it take to ensure your secure retirement and future care? What do you hope to pass on as your legacy, and to whom?
When we started out as financial planning professionals, the industry was built on traditional expectations. We’ve watched those models grow out of date. Like other mid-life adults, you may have other plans. Your financial plan should reflect that.