Kevin O’Leary thinks the biggest reason people wait to have kids is simple—money.
“The reason people don’t have kids earlier is they’re expensive,” the investor and TV personality said during a recent Fox News interview he shared on X. He tied the trend of delayed parenthood to rising living costs and the sky-high price of education. “So we’ve got a few things to fix ourselves,” he added.
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O’Leary reflected on his own life and said he wishes he had his children sooner. “What you learn in life is, when you get older, you realize you wish you had your kids earlier,” he said. “Family is the best thing you can get in America. If I could go back in time, I would have had them a decade earlier.”
During the interview, he was asked about policies like baby bonuses and fertility incentives, which the Trump administration has floated as ways to boost the U.S. birth rate. O’Leary didn’t offer strong support or opposition but brought up a familiar name: Elon Musk.
“I think Elon’s doing a great job making up for the rest of us,” he joked. “I think he’s on kid 14 now. Good for him.”
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O’Leary’s comments reflect a real financial hurdle for many Americans. According to data from the Brookings Institution, it now costs an average of $310,605 to raise a child from birth to age 17 for a middle-income family with two kids.
That’s a big jump from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2015 estimate of $233,610. The difference is largely due to increases in housing, childcare, food, and education.
According to Investopedia, housing alone can eat up 32% of a household’s income, based on consumer expenditures data. Food can take up 15% to 24%, depending on diet and family size. And childcare? That ranges from 7% to 23%, depending on where you live and what type of care you need.
And this doesn’t even include the cost of college. A year at a public university now averages $24,920, while private colleges can run over $58,000 per year.
