The total tab for getting a child from cradle to their 18th birthday is now $233,610; this according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
That doesn’t even include the cost of college tuition!
For parents in their thirties, each child is associated with a 3.7 percent drop in income and a 4.5 percent decline in wealth. A key factor is the motherhood penalty. The typical mom earns $9,400 less per year than a woman without children.
Even after children graduate, move out and start their own careers, a parent’s job isn’t necessarily finished. According to a Boston College study released last month, many parents continue donating time and money to their kids well into adulthood. About a third of parents have helped their adult children with gifts of time, such as taking care of their grandchildren and other chores. Moms and Dads also contribute an average of 366 hours a year, which amounts to about seven hours a week; and about thirty-one percent of parents also say they give money to their adult kids, with the average being around three thousand dollars during the past year.
It may seem obvious that kids make it harder to save; but, parents can compensate for the extra costs of parenting by spending less on themselves. Parents are often forced to budget more carefully—a skill that can pay off long after their children are grown. Some people may even decide to take their careers more seriously after having kids, and studies show have shown that some fathers end up earning more, than if they would have remained childless.
