Money on the Mind: To Have Kids or Not to Have Kids

Death, Sex & Money

Slate Podcasts

Business, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Careers, Relationships, Sexuality

4.6 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the difficult decision of whether or not to have kids. Child care? School? New vehicle? All the baby gadgets? Kids are expensive! Anna has two kids, and Felix is famously childless. Between the two of them they dig into their decisions to have and not have kids, the budgeting and balancing of all the emotional and financial costs of kids, how kids can be a benefit later in life, and more. For a visual experience, you can watch this episode on YouTube. Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Video production by Micah Phillips. Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Death, Sex & Money show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/dsmplus to get access wherever you listen. If you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, surprise.
0:02.4	This is Anna, and we have an extra drop in your death, sex, and money podcast feed this week to talk about money with the other Slate podcast host who spends his days thinking about it a lot.
0:14.8	Felix Salmon is the host of Slate Money, a show that may have a more narrow focus with less death and sex than ours.
0:23.8	But it does make me smarter about what's happening and quickly changing in business and finance
0:30.9	and the economy. Felix and I have been getting on video calls together to talk about the very
0:36.6	core decisions we make about money and how our own choices ladder up to how the entire economy works.
0:44.6	And for you this week, a conversation about money and the decision to raise kids of your own.
0:51.0	I have two kids. Felix has none. That means he has a lot more choices about what to do
0:57.3	with his money and also a less obvious answer to the question about legacy and what he's building for.
1:05.5	This is the first of three of our chats that we'll be sharing with you over the next few weeks.
1:10.3	It has been fun talking to Felix, and I think you'll be sharing with you over the next few weeks. It has been fun
1:11.2	talking to Felix, and I think you'll come away with some new self-awareness and clarity about
1:16.5	your own money choices. Also, you'll hear me talk near the top about a beautiful, pretty
1:22.6	ridiculous piece of costume jewelry that I was wearing while we talked. You can see that by watching this conversation
1:29.7	over on Slate's YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash slate. Now, enjoy.
1:37.0	Adobe Acrobat Studio so brand new. Show me all the things that PDFs can do. Do your work with
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1:51.1	looks super slick. Close that deal. Yeah, you won. Do that doing that, did that done. Now you can do
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2:03.5	It's time to do your best work with your new Adobe Acrobat Studio.
2:10.4	Hello, and welcome to a very special episode of, well, crossover episode of Slate Money with Death, Sex and Money,
	...

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