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It's a DINK economy, and we're all just living in it.
To be a DINK means to be in a household that's double income, no kids. One variant of the DINK is the DINKWAD, double income couples without kids — but with a dog. It's a trend that's been on the rise, as cash-strapped millennials and Gen Zers dream simply of comfortable lives as they're increasingly shut out of traditional milestones like homeownership, or even marriage.
And it turns out that going childfree is paying off: Couples with no children have the highest net worth out of all other types of family structures. The median net worth of a couple with no children is around $399,000 — over $100,000 more than it was in 2019, according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances.
Meanwhile, couples with children — who have the second highest net worth out of all types of family structures — have a net worth of $250,6000, per the Survey of Consumer Finances.
While this particular survey did not specify how many of these childfree couples are dual income, sky-high employment rates among working-age Americans suggest that a large portion of them are likely to have both members working.
As the Census Bureau found in 2021, childlessness is becoming more common among younger adults — almost a fifth of adults ages 55 to 64 are childless, which, per the Census analysis, "suggests that childless adults will make up an even greater share of the older adult population in the future." A separate Pew survey of 9,676 Americans found that 44% of 18 to 49-year-olds who do not have children say they're not likely or not at all likely to have kids.
Part of the rise of the DINK's economic power could be attributed to the unique pandemic economic conditions that changed how Americans spend and save, said Misty Heggeness, an economist and professor at the University of Kansas.
In 2020, consumption plunged — and American savings skyrocketed. Homeowners benefited from huge housing demand, and other lucky homebuyers locked in low interest rates.
"People were able to save more because nobody was leaving their homes. Nobody was going out to movies or entertainment. People weren't paying for gas to drive to work," Heggeness said. Those who were able to start working from home essentially got a raise, Heggeness added. They were working for the same salary, but doing far fewer costly activities.
"Some of those savings might ripple into an accumulation and increase in net worth," Heggeness said.
In fact, despite concerns that Americans had finally come close to burning through their pandemic-era savings, recent revisions showed that Americans still have $1.2 trillion in excess savings, according to JP Morgan. And, according to the Survey of Consumer Finances data, couples with no children had the highest average savings balance out of the different types of family structures: They have, on average, $103,140 tucked away.
The rise of DINK can be attributed, in part, to how millennials and the younger generations are reshaping traditional modes of partnership. Americans are increasingly getting married later in life, or not at all. Millennials are leaving behind the idea of parenthood, especially as they face increasingly infeasible homeownership and the effects of climate change. What's more, the cost of raising one child to their high school years is estimated to be $310,605 — the bulk of a median DINK's net worth.
"Deciding not to have kids, and instead deciding to just focus on our interests and our desires and what we want out of life has just given us a little bit more freedom, essentially, to take advantage of the world now, versus having to wait until our kids are grown or until we retire — if we retire," Nicole Valdez, a 37-year-old publishing publicity manager and DINKWAD, previously told Insider.
And some of those socioeconomic shifts might also explain why different types of family structures are doing better than others. For instance, single Americans with children have seen their net worth more than double over the last decade, and their net worth is outpacing younger, childless singles.
Heggeness chalks that up, in part, to women who aren't coupled up — but are taking proactive measures to start their own families. In the past, "the path to family configuration was very much a narrow yellow brick road" — there was a sequence of finding a mate, getting married, and having children, she said.
"If you had a child, and your relationship broke up and you ended up being a single parent, lots of times in the past those women were in much more vulnerable situations economically for various reasons," Heggeness said. Now, that rise in net worth might be due to the changing dynamics of how single parents are arriving at their destination. After all, as Heggeness notes, it's almost like a "luxury" to be able to have kids these days.
"It's a life of choice," Jasmen Rogers, a 33-year-old DINKWAD and consultant, previously told Insider. "The freedom and the power in being able to choose to remain childless, and to also have jobs that we both really enjoy that afford us a really great life."
Are you enjoying the economic benefits of being a DINK, or hope to be? Contact this reporter at jkaplan@insider.com.
