According to an article in this morning’s LA Times, the cost of raising a child has increased by 22% since 1960. The grand total for raising one child from birth to age 17 is now $222, 360.
For one child.
Before college.
So, the question is, what are you going to do with your spare quarter-million dollars?
Unfortunately, mine isn’t sitting around waiting to be spent, but if it were, I’d be writing tomorrow’s post from the coast of Madagascar, next week’s from the top of a camel in the Sahara, and the following week’s from the Great Wall of China. A quick word or two posted from the base camp of Everest, and then I’d probably have to come home for a while, if only to do laundry. I could use a new car to be honest, and I probably ought to save part of it for a down-payment on a house, but as I’d once anticipated having four children, I have the best part of a million dollars to spend all on myself.
Yes, this is a silly fantasy, but just for a moment, play along with me. How would you spend the $222,360 you saved by not having children?
If I had that sort of funds, right now I’d pay off the CCs … invest some for retirement and what was left over use to put against a down payment on a home, that or at use it to go travel and see more of Canada.
The funny thing is, it can cost more then that to raise a single child depending on where you live and what sort of life you wish to give the child in question. And if you wish to send it though University look at a min of 10,000 a year without accommodation fees being part of the picture, thats a min of 30,000 to 40,000 odd just to get a standard BA, if you wish to go on to your Master’s its goes higher and PhD higher still.
Higher education isn’t just for an off spring, my DH would love to goto school and get his degree, I know I’d like to go for my Masters, but neither is going to happen anytime soon with the cost of it being what it is – unfortunately.
Weekly spa visits for both of us. Deep tissue massages, the occasional salt scrub and deep-cleansing facial. And wine. Or I’d buy my own winery. We’re dreaming, right?
Pay off my morgtage and hire people to do amazing renovations while I sit back and have a glass of champagne. Sounds lovely!
Lovely dreams. Yes. I wonder if we could calculate how much children cost the government in services such as education and healthcare, and campaign to have our share diverted to our own goals. Or is that a different blog post altogether. Hmmmm.