Rich Gen Zers are choosing travel over kids

Younger generations have been choosing careers and travel over children for many years now, but when it comes to Generation Z, finances play a huge role in their family planning.

And it’s not necessarily in the way you would imagine, according to a new survey from StoreConnect.

The report found that 42.8 percent of higher-income Gen Zers making $150,000 or more a year are saving for travel over having kids, with only 27.7 percent of the wealthier Gen Zers making children a priority.

While waiting until you’re financially stable before having children might still be the traditional advice, the survey indicates that some Gen Zers are taking a different stance. And those who make less money are prioritizing family planning more.

Members of this generation might also be aware that they’ll need to save more money for this. Forty-five percent of the less financially stable Gen Zers, or those making between $25,000 and $49,999, said they were saving to have kids.

More and more Gen Zers and millennials have opted out of having children altogether, often citing the extremely high costs associated with raising kids as they try to keep afloat amid inflation and a student debt crisis.

According to another survey, from Morning Consult, 3 in 5 millennials said expenses were a reason for not wanting kids.

But others cited concerns about climate change, and some were just not interested in having kids generally and would rather focus on their careers. The number of women who do not want children is also becoming higher, as women are no longer financially dependent on their husbands and marriage in general.

Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, said Gen Z’s waning interest in kids has to do with the financial realities of having a family and the desire to travel and see the world.

“The trend of preferring pets and travels to starting a family is one we’ve seen growing for the past few years, starting with younger millennials and then exploding with Gen Z,” Beene told Newsweek.

“There’s obviously a major financial aspect here,” he said. “Children are expensive, taking care of them is time-consuming, and starting a family usually geographically locks people into locations. Gen Z favors mobility and looks to save and invest money to avoid more work, which is hard to do with children in the home.”

Still, Beene is not convinced that Gen Z will not start to show an interest in having children later on.

“I think in time many in Gen Z will come around to parenthood as prior generations did, but they have to feel more financially secure in order to do so,” he said.

“They’re not ready to make the sacrifices their parents did at the same age that come with raising a family. There have also never been more opportunities to spend on other elements that fulfill life, like travel and pets. It’s a combination that’s hard to resist,” Beene said.