I know this is seen on every single article, but I hate stuff like this in the comments:
I could have retired at 30 if i didnt have kids .now i have work into my retirement.
Having kids slows you down. I know that from the thousands of dollars I throw at the daycare center. But it isn't the difference between 30 and 65. It's sad to see people that need to drag someone down to feel better about where they are at in life.
That said, I'll never argue with someone over comments like that. A man convinced against his will, and all that.
It's not the difference between 30 and 65, but it can pretty easily be a 15 -20 year difference. We have pretty cheap daycare, and we will spend about $35k per kid just for day care. So a hundred thousand dollars relatively early on makes a pretty big difference. We will still have childcare costs after daycare, and of course our housing is more expensive because some of the cheaper housing would come with expensive private school tuition.
And it's fairly normal to feel some obligation to remain financially flexible for your kids. Even with all the extra expenses, we could still retire when the oldest one is 18 or 19, if we were willing to tell him he's on his own for college. In reality, we'll probably keep working until the youngest is at least half way through college and we feel reasonably sure he's going to launch successfully, just to make sure we have the financial means to help any of our kids if necessary, and if all three thrive, we'll just end up having a little more significant of an inheritance for them.
Parents shouldn't be complaining about that, but it is a big difference for retirement planning, and while trying to do things like pay for college is certainly a choice for parents, it's a pretty normal choice driven by a pretty common urge that makes retirement that much harder.