I was lucky to have a very supportive and attractive LTR since high school. Unfortunately she is ashes now. After being with numerous other women, mostly friends (single... and even married) of my deceased wife, I've realized that none are better than going short term. As someone running a business and as a widower single dad I cannot afford to spend too much time courting women.

However I still do want to have children. The energy and enthusiasm I see from my kid and the joy he expresses when he sees me coming home cannot be replaced by any puppy or woman.

I'm planning to have as many children as my income allows me.

Steps to Egg donor and Surrogates -

| Seek out attractive women (women who fit the golden ratio) younger than 22 through modelling agencies (~$1 - 2k). Interestingly, many ivy leaguer ladies I chatted through in person seem to be willing to do it without money.

| Ask them to do IQ tests, fertility tests and Gene tests. Negative points for those prone to more illnesses. Plus points for those with higher probability of being smart (e.g. Higher R1a and G* relates to higher attractiveness and J* means higher intel). ($500 - 1000)

| Send it up to surrogacy agencies in Ukraine or India. (~$10,000), $17000 for twins .I want twin boys).

| Navigate anti-single dad legal systems. Egg donor and surrogate withdraws all claim to the child. Sign up kid for adoption in suitable jurisdiction instead of a real child. Much smoother.

| Child-rearing. Where I live it's cheap to get quality education and healthcare because everything is subsidized unlike the US. That means I have money for additional toys, games, sport equipment which I never had the opportunity of having in my lower middle class upbringing in the third world. 24hr child care budget - 6k/yr. Increases with age.

Sex ?

As a 6-7 appearance wise, I do get matched with 21-22 yo 6-7/10s on Tinder/dating sites but the uncertainty, longer time to closing, disappointment turns me off.

By the time we are having sex the 3rd time, I get shit tests from women with questions about proceeding the relationship to Long term which I clearly don't intend to compromise on ANYTHING. I don't want to lie as I have much to loose as I'm running a business and asking them to sign an NDA with consent clauses look stupid and turn most away unlike what happened in 50 shades of grey. I want to stay far away from cohabitation liabilities, sexual assault charges or divorce rapes. If need get fake vasectomy papers from a third world doctor to avoid fake child support.

I go to places where prostitution is legal and safe. I see 9/10 attractive women charging merely ~90 Euros for an hour. Most don't care if I exceed the time limit. That is way less than what I earn hourly. I get different women every time without having guilt of breaking loyalty trusts with an LTR.

This is the best of both worlds. Better bang for buck. I get best genes for my kids from different women. AND I get different women to bang.

Affording a kid -

If I didn't have money I wouldn't be having kids anyway and pulling attractive women would have been difficult unless I'm drop dead attractive.

Kids are an option only after you attained self sufficiency. My advice to you folks would be to invest in self as much before investing in another person.

Learn skills, get degrees based on job statistics - No. of jobs, payscale, usual work hours, barriers to entry (education, network, time requirements). I turned down offer to get into finance and became a researcher instead. However, even though pay was shit, I got enough time to work on my startup idea which was related to what I was researching on. Now I live and make better money than I would have if I was in finance.

I believe that for the scientific progress of civilization, we need more borderline asperger nerds working like honeybees isolated in their hives, who do not have to waste time socially to get women. It's more productive to chase scientific and economic pursuits that make dough than take chances with extremely choosy women who you have to compromise a lot with.

My gf-wife was supportive to have sticked with me through the worst of economic hardships and I realized cases like hers aren't the norm but the exception. I would bring up my kid on a similar upbringing and help him find similar mates.

Tl;dr - Want Kids ? It's cheaper to get quality egg donors and surrogate. Most women make terrible parents anyway as we are at that point in history where children do better with a single dad than a single mom.