Not long ago, Redbook magazine printed a little blurb at the bottom of a page titled, "Can You Afford Another Kid?" It stated that the latest estimate of costs for raising a child from womb to "all grown up" is $222,360. "All grown up" are Redbook's exact words, but for the sake of argument, let's say that magic moment is the 18th birthday. And again, for the sake of this particularly mathematical post, let's also assume that this amount does not include the cost of college tuition.
Just in case you're wondering, like I was, I'll do the math for you.
$222,360 boils down to $12,353.33 per year (222,360/18 = 12,353.33). That number alone is a touch staggering for this one-income household.
One more equation, $12,353.33/365 = $33.84.
So, it costs about $34 per day to raise a child.
So our family will require $102 per day, not counting any expenses the two adults in the household might require.
I'd like to think I'm a rather frugal shopper. I regularly use coupons, I'm a pro at the Walgreens deals. But even if that reduces the cost to $50 a day, which would be a stretch, that's still a lot of cash! Seriously, how can anyone afford kids?
All I can say is: No. Wonder.
2 comments:
They must have added in the time value of money e.g. you invested the money rather than spend it on kids each time they required it. Alternatively or in addition, maybe they also included money that may have been covered by insurance e.g. labor/delivery, doctor's visits, mediation, etc.
Nevermind, the article from ibisworld (referenced on about.com working moms) seems to break out the costs. 35% of the cost of $222,000 is on housing. Does that mean they took your mortgage and divided it evenly amongst everyone living under the roof? Maybe they assume everyone buys a bigger house when they have kids, but would have a smaller house without. They suggest 14% on transportation. On the contrary, I think I am saving money on transportation after having kids (maybe I will think differently when they are older).
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