Is having a pool is inherently anti-Mustachian? Especially in a place like Chicago with about 3 months of pool usage time each year? Could having one be justified in a permanently hot climate?
Just curious.
You have to do the cost benefit analysis for your household (as with any other purchase). Lets make up some numbers for a small, cheap, efficient pool:
Installation costs: ~$15k (this is a super cheap pool!)
Annual cost to fill it: $50
Cost to run heater and filter: $200/year
Cost of chemicals: $300/year
So you're looking at $15k to install and another $550 annually for a pool you can use for 3 months in Chicago (or 9 months in New Mexico for instance). The cost to take kids to a public pool:
$5/trip in auto expenses and gas (assumes 10 miles round trip and $0.50 / mile)
then $8 / kid for a day pass (for example)
or
$100/month for a family membership somewhere
In this case the worth of the pool depends on what activities you expect your children to do. If you and your kids love pools (but only outdoor ones and only in the summer) and will use the pool 4 times per week during the summer, then having your own pool in Chicago would pay for itself vs 2 kids using day passes at a public pool, in about 30 years (but only if you ignore the opportunity cost of the 15k invested elsewhere).
So in this example with a super cheap pool, 2 kids using a pool 4 times per week, you will probably never actually break even. I have no idea if kids would actually want to use a pool 4 times per week, but it seems a little high if anything to me (but I never had a pool as a kid).
Pools are TERRIBLE investments. They are also one of the more difficult to justify personal conveniences from a financial standpoint when you can just take your kid to a public pool.