Comparing Family size with financial net worth

[tafan]

The thread “Discerning having a baby” has got me to thinking. This topic is not directly related to that thread, so I am posting this as a new thread to not derail relstudent’s request for advice.

I am wondering if there has ever been a study comparing the net worth of various size of families. It would be very interesting. I hate to generalize, but when I look around at large families I know (say greater than 5 kids) I seem to see several anecdotal trends.

1. relatively simple life styles. And this seems obvious, since these families have to support and educate a lot of kids.
2. Relatively successful dads. Although people respond to pressure differently, the pressure of knowing one is responsible for the long term financial support of so many people tends to be a great motivator.

I can think of several families I have known who fit this profile. One sees how they live and one thinks they are not well off financially at all. Then one gets to know them better and finds that the dad has a pretty successful job or business.

At the end of the day, I suspect that these two factors, on average, offset the added cost of all the kids. My guess is that there would be no correlation (or even a reverse correlation) between more kids and lower family net worth. But that is a guess. Has anyone ever seen a study about this? I will do a little research later today when I have time.

 

[EasterJoy]

I don’t know of a correlation between family size and net worth, but it seems to me that the larger the family is, the more chores the children are expected to do. When the children have to find jobs to help finance their educations, this definitely serves them well!

It is a service to children to help them develop a work ethic, but I don’t see how you can raise a large family without expecting the children to pitch in as a matter of routine. If you weren’t well-off enough to have a household staff in place, it would kill you!

 

[Joe_5859]

It would make for an interesting study.

Of course, I don’t make it a habit to ask others how much money they make. But I know of a number of large families where the dad works for Catholic entities. I would be surprised if they were pulling in the big bucks.

 

[holyrood]

I, too, know plenty of big families. The fathers in general have decent jobs. And they tend to spend carefully, of course.

I also know people who earn the same or more, with fewer children, and are forever broke, behind on bills, have bad credit, etc. But then…they’re buying alcohol and cigarettes, going to the store for candy bars, and more, on a constant, regular basis. I know someone who is always ‘broke’ although he earns the same amount as another person with far more children–and it’s because of constantly taking flights here, there, and everywhere, and lots of eating out.

A lot of it is really about how the money is spent.