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.
Ah, Daycare. That was the missing piece in my puzzle.
That stuff is expensive.