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So why do you think the amount to raise children is double? Just curious?
You must be around the 1% a whole lot if those are your expectations for a middle class family.
See this is the thing I don't get. That number $250k or so, is the AVERAGE, so that IS basically what the AVERAGE middle class family pays. And since some middle class people like you claim to pay a fraction of that, than mathematically some middle class people are going to pay double of that.
The 1% are people who make $350,000 a year or more, some make much more. That would be 6.3 MILLION over the 18 years of raising a child, so that would mean that they are spending less than 4% of their income on their children. Even at your income, do you really spend less than 4% of your household income on your children?
See this is the thing I don't get. That number $250k or so, is the AVERAGE, so that IS basically what the AVERAGE middle class family pays. And since some middle class people like you claim to pay a fraction of that, than mathematically some middle class people are going to pay double of that.
The 1% are people who make $350,000 a year or more, some make much more. That would be 6.3 MILLION over the 18 years of raising a child, so that would mean that they are spending less than 4% of their income on their children. Even at your income, do you really spend less than 4% of your household income on your children?
How can a middle class family spend close to half a million dollars on raising one child? If someone makes $100,000which is the upper end of the middle class, they have earned 1.8 million dollars in 18 years. That's before taxes. Will they really spend half a million on one child? I don't buy that.
The upper class definitely can do it. The sky is the limit on how much a child can cost.
Edit: this is in reference to the poster who said it should be double the amount listed in the article.
Last edited by Meyerland; 08-21-2014 at 02:32 PM..
How can a middle class family spend close to half a million dollars on raising one child? If someone makes $100,000which is the upper end of the middle class, they have earned 1.8 million dollars in 18 years. That's before taxes. Will they really spend half a million on one child? I don't buy that.
The upper class definitely can do it. The sky is the limit on how much a child can cost.
Right if you make 100K, you would spend about 13% of your income on caring for you children. You don't spend 13% of your income on your children? Housing, feeding, clothing, health insurance, medical expenses, entertainment, and so on. Easily 13% over here.
Oh and it is LESS than a QUARTER of a million, not even close to half a million.
Right if you make 100K, you would spend about 13% of your income on caring for you children. You don't spend 13% of your income on your children? Housing, feeding, clothing, health insurance, medical expenses, entertainment, and so on. Easily 13% over here.
Oh and it is LESS than a QUARTER of a million, not even close to half a million.
I was referring to the poster who thought it was double the original amount cited in the article.
That would be a little less than a half million dollars. You replied to my reply to his post. It should be clear as mud now.
I was referring to the poster who thought it was double the original amount cited in the article.
Ok but my point stands, you claim to spend FAR less than $250K, what was it 50K? That is 20% of the original amount, for $250K to be the average if people are spending less than half, than others would be spending double.
I don't think spending 1/4 of your income taking care of your children is odd at all. But to be fair, the fact that you only spend on average $3000 a year, even odder. So clearly there is some variability, while still being middle class.
Our expenses weren't that much more after having a child.
Our house is the same cost, as is our vehicles. Why do they count housing? We would have the same house regardless of having kids. The food bill went up a bit, about 100-150$ a month.
She wears hand me downs or clothes on sale, so maybe 300$ for clothes a year.
School is free, minus the 50$ for supplies and 50$ for incidentals.
Christmas and birthday are around 800$ if we do a big extravagant party for each.
Hobbies and camps are about 2000$ a year, although these are totally optional.
That's about 60,000$ for 18 years. Maybe double it for inflation and increased cost of living to 120,000$
Lots of people raise children just fine on less than we spend.
Here is my original post. I don't count housing or vehicles, because that wouldn't change due to children. Some people move into bigger or more expensive houses, but we already had a nice home.
You could count my salary loss as a SAHM, but I might stay home anyways because we move for my husbands job often. I might work or not, depending on the country we live in. I stayed home in Canada because it was illegal for me to work.
I said it probably would be around $120,000 for eighteen years. Why would I count things that we would spend the same amount of money for anyways?
Here is my original post. I don't count housing or vehicles, because that wouldn't change due to children. Some people move into bigger or more expensive houses, but we already had a nice home.
You could count my salary loss as a SAHM, but I might stay home anyways because we move for my husbands job often. I might work or not, depending on the country we live in. I stayed home in Canada because it was illegal for me to work.
I said it probably would be around $120,000 for eighteen years. Why would I count things that we would spend the same amount of money for anyways?
If you are going to change the parameter of the study, why bother comparing anything to it? You might as well compare your SAT score to how many pencils you own.
Yes, but more expensive housing is a choice. The SUV or expensive vehicles are a choice. We Live in an expensive area with good schools, but we would live here regardless of having a child.the same with the vehicles.
My parents bought an expensive house after we were long gone. We grew up in a 70,000$ house during the seventies and eighties just fine. We always had used sedan cars growing up, but they have nice new vehicles now.
Shrugs. I get where you are coming from, but parenthood is not as expensive as people make it out to be.
Plenty of people have family or friends to use for child care. Some families stagger their work schedules. Some people work in day ares and get free child care.
My child was in a very exclusive day care affiliated with our church, and the cost was only 700$ a month for a full day, which included food. Some people go to church there just to use the day care. Some other people get a live in au pair.
Whatever it is, how much you pay is a choice.
They should say it costs 250,000$ to raise a child with an upper middle class lifestyle. That I can agree with. Most lower to middle middle class families Spend way less.
I'm not sure of exact numbers, but this ehow article says middle class is about 20,000$ to 100,000$ income. You do the math.
If you use the Pew Center Research from the article it's $37,675 to $75,350. How on earth will a person making 50,000$ pay that much to raise a child?
So if a household makes 40,000$, that's only 720,000$ in an 18 year period. That's without taxes and all that stuff.
Well here's some more irrelevant stuff I posted. . All that expensive stuff is a choice. That's all I am saying. Lots of middle class people pay way less than I do, and. Some pay more.
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. All that expensive stuff is a choice. That's all I am saying. Lots of middle class people pay way less than I do, and. Some pay more.
