We have all heard about the $3.5 trillion set to flow from baby boomers to younger generations over the next 20 years.

The problem is only about half of Australians expect to inherit money or property from parents or others, according to Vanguard.

For those of us born on the wrong side of the intergenerational wealth coin, that means paying for the many bills of parenthood with no safety net underneath.

Which is why, at 30, sitting in a clean home with my wonderful partner, white linen, no children and fewer bills, parenthood seems like a scary decision to make.

It wasn’t always that way.

Baby boomers were called that for a reason, popping out an average of 3.5 babies per woman at the generation’s 1961 peak, ABS data shows.

Today’s fertility rate sits at 1.4, the lowest on record.

The household numbers tell the same story. Between 2016 and 2021, Australian households without children rose by 643,343, including almost 100,000 young couples.

By 2030, the Australian Institute of Family Studies expects couples without children to outnumber those with children.

Not only are we having fewer children, we are having them later. In 1980, the median age for a first birth was 26.6 for mothers and 29.4 for fathers, according to government data.

By 2023, it had risen to 32.1 and 33.9 respectively.

I’m now older than my mother was when she had her only son. I’m not sure what that says about me, but it says a lot about the times we live in.

The baby boomer wealth transfer is built on a very specific history: high homeownership, massive property inflation, more stable careers, cheaper entry into assets, and a generation large enough to create the idea of a national inheritance wave.

But for the younger generations, many will carry bigger mortgages for longer, buy later, have fewer children, spend more on childcare and aged care, and may use more of their own wealth just staying comfortable in old age.

That is until the saviour of inheritance comes to vindicate their struggle — at least for half of us.

For them, the intergenerational wealth transfer will trickle down to their children and grandchildren, albeit diluted. The rest will just have to struggle on.

That is why holding onto that ‘dual income, no kids’ lifestyle for as long as possible is the financially responsible, rational thing to do.

So many in my generation didn’t chose the DINK life, the DINK life chose us.

Even so, building a family is still on the cards, at least for me. Some things are worth more than money.