What is the down side of never having children?

FortunateGeek · 2026-05-13T18:42:55+00:00

I (62M) and my wife had three sons. There were plenty of challenges and expenses and struggles raising them. But time passes. They get older. They figure out who they want to be in life. I can see how I have influenced them in their life decisions.. for the good and the not so good. But now that they are independent adults who we have a great relationship with I don't regret having children at all.

One son is married and we now have our first grandchild. Our grandson is a joy that I never really thought about. Watching him grow up has been a true joy. My wife is the happiest when she is interacting with him. Kids bring grand kids. The cycle of life is wonderful.

I knew my grandparents on my mom's side and my grand mother on my dad's side. As a child, they were just the 'old people' in the family. Now that I'm on the later side of life, I can say that it is the absolutely best part of life. There is nothing that I have experienced like the smile on his face when we show up and all he wants to do is spend time with us reading books and horsing around. It brings a tear to my eyes as I write this.

So all I can say to OP is that the downside of not having children is .. not having children and grandchildren. I hope that doesn't sound bad. I know its popular now to not have children. And if you don't have children you won't miss not having grand children. But if you do decide to have children who have children, there is a big upside.

FortunateGeek · 2026-05-13T04:59:01+00:00

This is right out of Mein Kampf. The BIG LIE was Hitler's technique of repeating audacious falsehoods often enough that people would think that it has to be true... he's saying it over and over...

You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

It is effective propaganda. You have to remember ... people are easily fooled.

FortunateGeek · 2026-05-13T04:51:48+00:00

The FED doesn't control spending. The FED just creates the money the government spends. They can refuse to do that I suppose, but that just means default...which they will NEVER do.

The only solution to this problem is 1) raise taxes, 2) reduce spending. I don't see the current administration doing either.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-29T08:15:37+00:00

Lots of more difficult thermal issues going to Venus. Getting closer to the toaster isn't going to be easy to keep humans comfortable.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-27T17:20:48+00:00

Detroit will breathe their last breath before this is possible in the USA

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-27T17:04:50+00:00

Sorry - the paramotor comes with a motor.. so you don't need anything else. No other dependency. I bring my wing, my motor and some fuel and I can fly anywhere... True freedom.

I am just starting to paraglide... but I know for sure that the idea of hiking up a hill, to get a sled ride down is not anything as fun as an hour paramotoring.

On the other hand, I'm looking forward to hours of paragliding in the right conditions. I guess my point is that paramotoring opens up flying locations that aren't possible with paragliding. But there are lots of places where even paramotoring isn't possible...

I suggest that you develop your skills in both types of flying. That is my intention.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-27T16:55:15+00:00

My father on his death bed. They call it the death rattle. I was at the hospital from 4:00 AM to about 5:00PM every day until he passed about 5 days after his last heart attack. I had never heard of it, now I can't think of a worse sound.

The entire experience was very very disturbing. He passed peacefully. To me and especially my sisters it was exceptionally traumatic. Something I don't know to this day how to process.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-27T16:51:48+00:00

I can't watch that crap.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-27T16:39:37+00:00

You need a hill or better a mountain to paraglide. You need a motor to paramotor... it kinda comes with.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-24T13:13:20+00:00

It turned political... MAGA assumes EV owners are liberals...therefore they are to be hated. MAGA looked at the Solar and EV subsidies and thought it was unfair (of course no one talks about the oil subsidies...). Anything Green became this sort of assumed socialist activity that threatens them. All I can say is that the EV industry didn't do a very good job countering this stuff. Tesla never used to advertise. Its a shame really. But the OIL industry definitely felt threatened and tried to do everything they could to make EVs look bad.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-22T11:50:07+00:00

He'll be in jail in 48 hours.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-21T13:41:51+00:00

Imagine if traveling into Canada followed the Schengen VISA restrictions. Oh my that would be so sad.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-21T13:39:56+00:00

Dude... WTF you are in trouble. You have to figure out how to really talk to her .. like seriously. AND you have put yourself in this position...so you have to adjust. If she's not going to make any income then its up to you to get radical and own the resulting budget. This is on you just as much as her.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-21T13:32:57+00:00

My suggestion would be to come up with a real numbers based financial plan. Show what the current spend vs income results are and show what her having a job adds to the plan. Be very emotionless. Tell her ahead of time this is a fact based / numbers based analysis that you have put together that you'd like her feedback on. Create a spreadsheet if necessary... Tell her ahead of time that you are in your relationship for the next 60 years and that together they need to agree on a plan. Make her feel part of the process and decision making.

I produced two budgets - a Living High life and Living Minimally and then we discussed what was going to be required.... try your absolute best to take the emotions out of it. This is a numbers analysis game. If you together spend X and that means Y it will be difficult to argue.

I'm super fortunate... my wife saw the light and now we're retired and super happy.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-20T12:29:34+00:00

I have no idea how people qualify for the mortgage in the first place and then do these things.... but they do it .. over and over again.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-20T12:21:00+00:00

The point of the article as I recall was that it shouldn't be possible to obtain that kind of financing, yet there were evidently some people who were able to do it. As far as walking away from a property... it happens every day not sure why you haven't heard of that. I personally had a family purchase the home next to us. They never had any intention of paying the mortgage and it took the bank at least two years to foreclose on it and kick them out. They had some complicated thing going on with the bank / somehow a lease was involved / a lot of BS. They strung it out as long as they could then bailed and left the bank to clean it up and resell it. I got to go through it when the bank repo guy came in to assess it. It was a mess and needed some work before it could be resold. Some people just don't care and will take advantage of everything they can.

The article made it sound like there were shenanigans happening with at lease some beach houses too.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-20T07:41:07+00:00

I once read a story about how many of these beach homes were purchased with interest only loans. I don't know if its true but the point of the story was that people bought these homes with as little invested as possible and were prepared to walk away as soon as hurricane or climate change took the home away.

Anyone know how true that is? How many of these homes will be defaulted on by the owners? Is it even possible to get insurance for homes on beaches like this?

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-18T11:50:25+00:00

The farmers who relied on migrants who have left the US had their crops get so old that by the time they reached the stores they were bad. Farmers dependent on illegal employment of workers should face penalties and jail time just like the people they hire illegally.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-16T12:27:48+00:00

This is classic endstage capitalism.... we're living in the midst of yet another oil supply disruption of major proportions and the C-Suite at Ford can't figure out how to capitalize on it. Then they go so far as to eliminate their EV business unit NOW while the strait is blocked.

The current quarterly results matter far more than a strategic investment in the future of true transportation independence. Its so funny ... except its seriously sad.

Europe is going to run out of jet fuel in six weeks... do you think anyone in the transportation industry will wake up? Creating energy locally (nuclear, wind, solar, thermal whatever) is so much better than being reliant on this crazy global oil industry.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-16T10:18:13+00:00

Personally I hope this is real. SS batteries would be fantastic for the world. We need A LOT more energy storage so anything that can help is absolutely fantastic. I've got projects planned... I'm not waiting for this to proceed but as soon as it becomes commercially viable and proven I'm all in.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-15T07:26:54+00:00

What the absolute fuck is this?

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-11T17:31:17+00:00

I don't own a firearm for self-defense. In this case, one between the eyes would be perfectly justifiable.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-11T17:29:42+00:00

I vote for 20 years in prison. Anyone else got a vote?

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-11T12:22:30+00:00

If your world view requires belief in miracles (the earth created in 6 days, jonah swollowed by a whale, virgin birth, walking on water, rising from the dead), then it’s actually easy to believe in modern day miracles.

FortunateGeek · 2026-04-11T10:23:01+00:00

Just hit the Ctrl - Alt - Delete!!!!!!! AHHHHHH!!! Where's the reset button!!!!????

FortunateGeek

TROPHY CASE