youthe days of family channels being the ideal Internet family arrangement is behind us. Instead, apps like TikTok are making room for DINKS, an acronym for double-income households with no children.
DINK videos, which have more than 33 million views on Tik Tokshows the lifestyle of married couples without children– from Travel the world, to parenthood petsat expense $100 in candy, Why? Why not? Kate Anderson, known as @engelthang On TikTok, she gained nearly 100,000 followers by posting “dink vlogs,” videos that show her and her husband’s daily lives. One of the most popular videos of her is a date night for costco. “We don’t have children to feed, but we have a lot of money to spend on sweets,” she says in a video with more than 1.5 million likes.
Anderson, a 30-year-old newlywed living in Minnesota, creates content for other couples who are feeling the pressure to have children after marriage. “There’s not a lot of discussion about other lifestyle options available to newlyweds,” she says. “It really surprised me how aspirational some people found it. They will tell me: ‘Yes, that is the life of my dreams’”.
While this may be another case of the relationship-rewarding vertical video app, it’s also a direct reflection of reality for many adults. Fertility rates have been declining in the US for more than a decade and there is a growing proportion of adults in the US who do not plan to have children, according to a 2021 Pew Research study.
But as much as Gen-Zers and millennials embrace the word “DINK,” they didn’t come up with the term. Boomers have been using it for decades, as noted in the 1987 TIME article ‘Living: Here Come the DINKs’. The article notes that the cost of raising a child to age 18 was nearly $100,000 at the End-shutdown. That number is now closer to $310,000, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Brookings Institution data analysis.
Jadyn Bryden, who is 23 and a venture capitalist, first heard of the term DINK when she was younger and admitted that she couldn’t imagine what that life choice would be like as an adult. Now she and her husband call themselves DINK and live together in Boston, where they earn two incomes and have yet to have any children. The choice is financially smart, she says.
Bryden and her husband haven’t decided to splurge on expensive handbags or lavish trips with their sizable dual incomes. Instead, they have decided to live on one income and fully save and invest the other. “Having two incomes and not having children is the perfect opportunity to use your discretionary income to save or invest,” says Bryden. Living on one income, the couple has been able to save for their wedding, build their savings and retirement accounts, and work to finance future rental properties. Your tip for other DINK it is to do the same if they can.
But just because Bryden doesn’t have kids now, doesn’t mean he doesn’t want them in the future. In fact, his choice to have a double income and not have children now is preparing her for when he does have children. “DINK status isn’t always necessarily a long-term thing,” she says. “We are using this End-shutdown as an opportunity to put together a solid financial foundation so that we don’t have to struggle in the future.”
Although these households may have more disposable income, DINKs are not completely exempt from financial planning. Some realities to consider are that there are fewer deductions when filing taxes without children and you may need to research who will receive your potential assets, according to the advisory firm. Sailor Wealth Advisors.
Anderson explains to her followers that the budget is just as necessary for married couples without children as it is for married couples. “Yes, even DINK’s budget sometimes,” she says in videos. detailing your choice to save for home remodeling and landscaping.
“I would love to help normalize this type of relationship,” he says in other. Anderson has received some messages from parents defending her ability to continue to do similar things with the children. “I never want to make content that makes parents feel bad about having children,” she says. “There is nothing wrong with having children and I don’t think the DINK lifestyle is superior. People should be open to choosing the lifestyle they want.”
Many viewers get this content on their ForYouPage and respond positively, expressing their hopes to imitate the lifestyle for themselves. “The little DINKS (double income, no kids) trend on TikTok is how I aspire to be,” writes one on Twitter. “I always thought I would want kids eventually, later in life, but ever since I saw a TikTok of a DINK couple, I’m starting to think that’s more of life for me. Why am I letting TikTok invade my thoughts like this?” writes another.
The hashtags don’t stop there. Another gaining ground on TikTok is DINKWAD, which stands for double income, no children, with a dog. the hashtag, with 3 million cumulative views, celebrates couples who have invested their parental instincts in their pets instead. “That’s what I want,” says one person in a viral video with almost 4 million views “I want to be a DINKWAD and I don’t care how stupid it sounds. At least I don’t have kids and I have a dog.”
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