Re: The Price of Children
Which country is this in? U.S.? Do you have a link for this information? $8,896/year for a child seems ridiculously low when you consider costs of health insurance, vacation (1 single plane ticket for that child to go to Pakistan for example), and day care (since most families I know in the U.S. don’t know anyone willng to watch their children for free IF the mother works). Let’s not even start on kids who to extracurricular activites in school that need various extra fees.
According to the article below published a few months ago, the govt. says the cost of raising kids for a middle income family is $235,000.
Cost Of Raising A Child Climbs To $235,000 For Middle-Income Families
To be honest…I think even $235,000 is low b/c I don’t think even that study considers loss of wages for women due to maternity leave, kids getting sick…or even they give up their career completely to stay home full time. And let’s be realistic…desis aren’t going to kick their kids out of the house at 18, totally cut them off financially, and refuse to help them out with college tuition. Of course, with desis (specially girls), there are wedding costs. None of this is considered in the numbers above.
Oh and here’s something else that many lawyers and therapists will tell you…for MANY couples, having children also leads to less marital satisfaction and higher rate of depression due to the extra stress. If the couple has any marital or financial issues…adding the stress/additional cost of a child makes it worse in most situations.
Just playing the devil’s advocate and sharing some thoughts. I really would love to see a link to the cost and how they came up with the $160,140. 