Investor Kevin O'Leary has a simple explanation for why Americans are waiting longer to start families: kids are expensive. Really expensive.

"The reason people don't have kids earlier is they're expensive," O'Leary said in a Fox interview he shared on X in April, pointing to the rising cost of living and ballooning education expenses as major factors. "We've got a few things to fix ourselves."

The Economics Of Starting A Family

O'Leary, better known as "Mr. Wonderful" from "Shark Tank," got reflective about his own journey as a father and admitted he has some regrets about timing.

"What you learn in life is, when you get older, you realize you wish you had your kids earlier," he said. "Family is the best thing you can get in America. If I could go back in time, I would have had them a decade earlier."

But here's the catch: today's economic reality makes starting a family earlier incredibly difficult for young people. It's not about desire, it's about affordability. "Education is extremely expensive," O'Leary noted.

When the conversation turned to the Trump administration's proposals for baby bonuses and fertility incentives designed to boost the U.S. birth rate, O'Leary couldn't resist making a joke about Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.

"I think Elon's doing a great job making up for the rest of us," he said. "I think he's on kid 14 now. Good for him."

The Real Numbers Behind Raising Children

O'Leary isn't exaggerating about the financial commitment. The Brookings Institution now estimates it costs $310,605 to raise a child to age 17 in a typical middle-income household with two children. That represents a substantial jump from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2015 estimate of $233,610.

What's driving the increase? According to Investopedia, housing remains the single biggest expense, consuming about a third of household income. Food can account for up to 24%, depending on where you live and what you eat. Childcare costs vary wildly but can devour anywhere from 7% to 23% of household budgets.

And those figures don't even include college. Average in-state tuition at public universities now runs nearly $25,000 per year. Private institutions? Over $58,000 annually.

Parents have some tools to soften the blow, including tax benefits like the child tax credit and college savings vehicles such as 529 plans. But even with those resources, the financial pressure on families remains intense and continues to influence when, or whether, people decide to have children.