Average Cost Of Raising A Kid Climbs To $245,000 — And That’s Not Including College

Parent Cafe
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<p>“Planning on bringing a new bouncing bundle of joy into the world soon? You’re probably already used to shelling out some major bucks in preparation for that little one, but the spending won’t stop here: The average cost of rearing a human to the ripe old age of 18 has risen again, to $245,000 based on a middle-income family. And then comes college.” …</p>

<p>Yikes.</p>

<p><a href=“Average Cost Of Raising A Kid Climbs To $245,000 — And That’s Not Including College – Consumerist”>http://consumerist.com/2014/08/18/average-cost-of-raising-a-kid-climbs-to-245000-and-thats-not-including-college/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>More: <a href=“Average cost of raising a child hits $245,000”>Average cost of raising a child hits $245,000;

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<p>It’s hardest on those doughnut hole families–not rich enough where they can easily drop 1/4 million dollars to raise a child, but not poor enough to qualify for government assistance.</p>

<p>Some parents even go into debt for housing for their precious snowflakes! </p>

<p>Just wish my state offered some merit aid for me to raise my gifted children. </p>

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<p>I’m assuming that they are not including lost income from SAHPs…it would be a lot higher.</p>

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<p>DH scoffed at that number, pointing out that that barely covered the cost of an education.</p>

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<p>^ It doesn’t factor in the cost of college. It’s only through 18. (Unless you’re referring to private K-12s in which case, yes, you’re probably most certainly on the high side of average).</p>

<p>That works out to about 1/4 of income per year before taxes for a median income household- and that’s just for one kid. Hm. </p>

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<p>$245,000 is a big number, but divided by 18 years is $13,611 per year. Of course, costs to raise a kid are not level each year.</p>

<p>Still, $13,611 per year is larger than the assumed room+board+personal+transportation costs of a commuter college student living with parents. Colleges listing a commuter budget typically have $4,000 to $5,000 for “room and board” (additional food and utilities at the parents’ house) and about $3,000 for personal and transportation, for a total of $7,000 to $8,000.</p>

<p>Of course, if the student attends private K-12 schools, the cost becomes significantly higher.</p>

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<p>Romani, he was referring to their k-12 education </p>

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<p>But the payback( in most cases), is priceless!</p>

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<p>Not everything is measured by money. As another example, choosing your spouse based on the potential spouse income may not work at all. Having a child is one of the life’s greatest experiences. If you look at life as a collection of experiences, then this one is at the top. Those who do not have it, miss out the best. As a comment, overall, the “cheapest” life is probably the one of somebody who does not do anything at all, just lay in bed and live on government assistance. It may be attractive to some though. So, I would say, ask yourself what do you want from life and go from there, forget about cost, it will mean nothing. As a compromise, you can minimise the cost of raising the child, which again, would involve probably being on govenrment support and not pay anything, but let others do it, then your cost would be zero. Maybe there is another solution for a"free" kid, nothing is coming to my head though.</p>