> Cost-of-living ~$36k excluding housing

When you say housing, are you excluding utilities or just not direct rent / mortgage / property taxes?

Either way, that's a good example of how different things are without kids and maybe why folks are choosing not to have them.

As someone without kids who lives in NY (not NYC), I couldn't even imagine spending 36k / year (minus rent). Even if I took a 3 week international vacation every quarter I wouldn't come close to that amount after factoring in my normal costs.