Olav23 said:
I'm just wondering, is there any rule of thumb to estimate how much a child will cost, as a portion of your income?
No. However kids are cheap at any price.
If kids are the difference between being able to ER or working longer, I'd work longer. Of course your kids will motivate you to work harder for ER...
Here's our 1992-present Quicken data:
Allowance....................2,003.24
Childcare (baby)........12,516.22
Daycare (older).......22,567.20
Girl Scouts....................900.97
Horses....................10,448.78
Hula.............................448.58
School.....................16,919.30
Sports.......................6,759.83
Toys..........................3,325.04
Clothing.......................3,450.31
Dining........................11,796.34
Groceries & toiletries.32,358.47
Sitter...........................1,482.00
Pets................................899.46
College......................67,200.00
Medical & dental..........4,686.60
Tax federal..................2,346.55
Tax state..........................36.92
TOTAL: $200,145.21 (but check my addition)
Disclaimers:
- The kid is only 14 years old and hasn't asked us to pay for driving, dating, or drinking yet.
- The childcare & daycare numbers are cheaper than most. (Two working parents.)
- As you equestians know, dressage (horses) for three+ years was world-class cheap.
- Public school plus eight years of $85/month Kumon math.
- Clothing is pretty much Goodwill & garage sales in Hawaii (no winter gear, few shoes).
- Dining is 40% of the family total. McDs & Chuck E. Cheese more than make up for the grownup gourmet-dining experiences that we've foregone.
- Groceries & toiletries are 40% of the total family cost. Proportions might be different between genders but the total would be about the same.
- We pretty much stopped using sitters when she was five years old.
- College is roughly $400/month for the last 14 years, but we think we're done. This does not include unrealized gains.
- Medical & dental includes $4400 of orthodontia but family TRICARE medical premiums were free for the first nine years.
- She pays for her own iTunes & Netflix subscriptions-- not us!
- Considering the water left running, lights left burning, and loads of laundry then she should pay 40% of the utilities too... but she doesn't. Yet.
Other issues:
- Some of our numbers (childcare, daycare, medical, dental) were subsidized by the military but could also be subsidized by some corporations.
- Maybe some of you would estimate one kid's groceries & dining at less that 40% but our numbers are probably
low-- you'd have to board our kid for a week to try and keep up with her consumption.
- We've probably saved too much for college-- especially considering the last couple years' market returns-- but if we'd started in 1966 it wouldn't look very impressive.