Posted on 08/19/2014 6:12:04 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Those little bundles of joy are going to cost you — big time.
A child born in 2013 will drain an average of $245,340 from his or her middle-class parents over the kid’s first 18 years on Earth, a federal study revealed on Monday. And that doesn’t even include the cost of college.
The figure is up $4,260, or almost 2 percent, from the year before, according to the report from the annual United States Department of Agriculture.
Factoring in inflation, the total cost will turn out to be closer to $340,480 in actual greenbacks spent.
The latest figures blow away results from the study’s first year, in 1960, when a middle-class household spent about $25,230 — or $198,560 in 2013 dollars — to raise a child until age 18.
The federal analysis split the country into four regions, and, predictably, the Northeast was the most expensive for parents.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
That must mean “You” and me , the taxpayers, paying that much to raise breeders 6 or 7 kids.
If you use daycare for a baby, you could end up paying $250 a week in childcare or $10K per year. And that much in medical bills, depending on your health insurance.
My kids are a little older. We pay around $200/month groceries, $800/month childcare, $200-300 per month for entertainment and activities and cable TV. If I attribute a portion of the utilities to them, that’s $100/month. So $1300 a month or $15,600 a year - for two kids. That’s around 8K per year per kid. Childcare was much higher when they were in diapers, and education was a big chunk when they were in private school. I’m not counting private school tuition in this total.
If I add in family health insurance versus just two adults, maybe we’re up to 20K per year for TWO children. 10K each for basic expenses, some of which like music lessons and school activities are a choice.
A large part of the “20K per year” assumes you get a much bigger house when you have kids and buy a bigger, expensive car. We don’t.
Home school defense league HSDLA’s list of local home school support groups
http://www.hslda.org/LandingPages/local-groups.asp
Ah, Daycare. That was the missing piece in my puzzle.
That stuff is expensive.
Quality infant daycare in a major city can cost $1200-1500 per month. It drops to $900-$1100 when they are walking, $800-$1000 if toilet trained.
Pay a grandmother staying at home with a grandkid to watch one more, you pay half that.
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