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By 18 most kids had a part-time job, usually making no more than 150% of minimum wage. The parents still provided the food, although fast food joints are teen hangouts, and you can safely assume that they will take many of their meals out with friends. I had my cell phone paid for since I was on a family plan (I was actually on it until I was almost 24). None of us paid rent or shared in the utilities when we were 18.
Shortly after I graduated high school in 2005, I made almost $1,500 at my grad party. Some from wealthier families will probably make more than this. In some parts of the country, though, grad parties aren't thought of as financially significant events.
18 is also the age when most kids go to college. The price of tuition varies tremendously, as well as who pays the tuition. In my case, after a $10,000 "automatic" scholarship (granted by the university, based on GPA and ACT score), significant amounts of government financial aid, and a lesser-than-average student loan burden, my mother paid $1,400 for my first semester at a mid-tier private Catholic school. My parents also purchased my books, but in later semesters we were going through hard times and I had to pay for my books, even though they were cheap (I remember paying $140 once for a full semester's course load).
When my sister selected her college, we were in such a bad financial situation that my alma mater had set up a fund that would basically give my sister a free ride.
Dorms and food plans can be very expensive. I lived at home, so that cost was eliminated.
The first eighteen years are cheap compared to the next four years of college.
Amen to that. Plus once they start driving it's like the related costs go turbo. Having my teenage son (now seventeen) driving has resulted in an annual cost increase of well over $6k (insurance, cost of an additional car, supplementing his fuel budget). Obviously we're fortunate that we're able to manage this with smoke and mirrors but coming up with an extra $500 per month is no simple thing.
The interesting thing overall is that I've never really thought about how much my children cost. The only reason I calculated the car-related expenses was because my son is expected to pay half the cost and I felt it only fair that he understood the numbers and why his contribution was important. But thinking of children in quantitative terms fails to factor in the qualitative elements and distills an invaluable experience down to dollars and cents; I would never want to do that - it would only come up the next time he ticked me off.
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