Monday, March 21, 2011

A Couple of Dinks

DINK is an acronym for Double/Dual Income No Kids.  Yes, the word dink has a couple other humorous and not so humorous definitions (in particular, definition #7 on urbandictionary.com gave me a chuckle).  But, let's stay relevant.  The DINK I'm talking about refers to a couple without children who have abundant disposable income due to their lack of financial responsibility.  It's like a couple of yuppies (young upwardly-mobile professional people, the late 70's backlash to hippies) who prioritize growing their combined wealth and not growing their family.

I learned about the DINK demographic recently and was amused (by the name) and intrigued that there are so many of these couples out there that an acronym has been coined.  It was a nice reminder that while my post-marriage plans include starting a family, not everyone feels the same way.  The DINKs  are the target market for luxury brands.  They are characterized by their love of spending money on travel, fine dining and consumer products in general.  They take pride in having absolutely no financial responsibility other than themselves.  Not even pets.

In addition to spending, they love building their assets.  There are blogs, websites and even a DINK facebook page where fellow DINKs share investment strategies.  They hate hearing "you'll change your mind" from friends, family and strangers...because they won't.  Ill-behaved children at restaurants and movie theaters are a huge pet peeve.  And if they made the rules, babies in general would not be allowed in public place because they're too unpredictable and take up too much space with all their accessories.

All this is a stark contrast to the theme of this blog - the baby craze.  And while the typical reader of Next Stop - Baby is more likely to be part of the MEWK demographic (Many Expenses With/Wanting Kids), it takes all kinds.  

If you're a newly discovered DINK (or just interested in stealing their finance secrets), check out the Dual Income No Kids blog for your Kindle or http://www.dinksfinance.com/.

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