I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to afford a home, children, and retirement.

Hi all. 30 yo here. I currently make $110,000 annually, in a layoff-sensitive field (corporate communications, have been laid off once). Every month I put $2500 away in a HYSA and $1000 in a Roth IRA/Retirement. No debt, although I’ll be needing a vehicle soon. $51000 in savings, $15000 in retirement.

Lately, I’ve been crunching the numbers on the cost of raising children, what I’ll need for retirement, and the cost of owning a home. I’ve already decided that I’m going to wait until I’m 40 to look into a home, but honestly have no idea how people have kids these days while continuing to save for retirement and paying off their home.

I’ve never been “anti” having kids, but could also easily go my entire life without having them and be perfectly happy if it meant that I were able to live comfortably and have a healthy retirement savings. I am not willing to have children at the expense of everything else. This is compounded by the knowledge that, as a woman, I know that there is a statistical likelihood that having children will nerf my potential career earnings and my long term health.

Has anybody else come to a similar realization?