So you want to have a baby or perhaps you’ve already had your baby. The following statistics are per the U.S. Department of Agriculture and are based on what the costs will be to the average middle-income, two-parent family will spend over $153,000 to raise one child between birth and the age of 18.
Please take a moment to catch your breath on that figure before we continue.
Now, remember – we are still just talking about one child. The child that will cost you over $153,000 to raise will eat about $55,000 worth of food and outgrow, destroy or otherwise go through about $22,000 worth of clothes.
Do you need another minute?
Okay, for parents of babies born in 2000 (that would be me), you can expect to pay upwards of $150,000 for college tuition, fees, and room and board at a public, four-year university. So don’t even think about Harvard, Princeton or Yale at the moment.
The cost of feeding a child? $55,000
The cost of clothing a child? $22,000
The cost of sending your child to college? $150,000
The cost of sharing your life with a child? Priceless.
Do Remember
These numbers are often adjusted for cost of living and while they may seem astronomical and in many ways, they are – the numbers change with the decades just as your income does – the average middle-income family when we were growing up didn’t make a $100,000 a year.
So it’s all relative, depending on your point of view.
Are you okay?
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