Just how much does it cost to have a child? Can you afford to have a baby? In this video, Amy Cattelino, CFP® from Pure Financial Advisors breaks down the costs involved in raising a child from birth through age 17.
Transcript:
Can I afford to have a baby? What an exciting conversation to have! Of course, there’s a financial aspect to take a look at, but there’s an emotional aspect too: is your house ready? Is your family ready? But there’s a financial component as well that’s very important to digest and start to be aware of before making that decision.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture comes out with a study every year. The average cost to raise a kid from 0 to 17 currently is around $233,000. Woo! Let’s take a deep breath there. What that number doesn’t include is what’s the average child care cost? Do you want to pay for private education? Do you want to pay for college as well? So if you plan on working while having your child, child care costs are going to be a big component while you’re at work. The average in the nation currently is around $37,000. If you also want to cover for the costs of college, looking at in-state tuition for room and board is around $20,000 a year. And if you’re looking to have your kid go out of state, that would be around $36,000 a year.
Here’s the good news: the more kids you have, the less it costs to raise that child because you can start to share resources. One kid outgrows a pair of shoes, your next child can wear that pair of shoes, or you buy things in bulk, you make a bigger recipe, but obviously, there’s an emotional and relationship aspect to this. I don’t think most people have more kids just to try to save a few bucks.
Let’s break down the numbers because you look at this number and is daunting: $233,000 over the lifetime. Here’s the good news, is if you take that number and break it down on an average by year basis, it’s a little over $12,000 a year. So that’s a little bit more manageable to stomach. And the other thing too is that currently in our nation there is a child tax credit. So for every child you have, the government will help chip in some costs too. From 2018-2025, it’s $2,000 per child if you qualify based on income limitations. Starting in 2026 going forward, that average child tax credit is a $1,000 at this point, scheduled to rule changes. If you have further questions if you want to crunch the numbers in a little bit more detail, reach out to us here at Pure Financial.
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