According to a study cited by Julia in another blog post, the costs of raising a child are roughly constant over his or her childhood and adolescence (see image below). This would suggest that the total parenting costs for Julia and Jeff will be around $360,000, or $245,000 in present value (at a 5% real discount rate). For comparison, Brian’s estimated present-value cost of parenthood is $300,000, while Bernadette’s is $184,000 (thought the latter is expressed differently and doesn’t take into account opportunity costs; see here for discussion).
During this period Julia was off work entirely for the first five months after the birth, which made for a lot of lost wages. Since then, however, we’ve changed our schedules so Julia’s working 70% as much as she was before the baby. My guess is that over the next year lost wages will be lower, around $8-$10k. Then once they’re in elementary school this will decrease even more.
In addition, expenditures on children made by people outside the household and by the government are not included. Indirect costs involved in child rearing by parents (time costs and foregone earnings and career opportunities) are also not included in the estimates.
It’s remarkable that you managed to spend so much less than the study estimates: less than half of those in the lowest income bracket, and about a fifth of those in your income bracket.
Let’s look at it by category. The numbers for the situation most similar to ours seem to be the ones in “Table 2. Estimated annual expenditures on a child by husband-wife families, urban Northeast, 2012” on page 27. Looking at age 0-2 and average pre-tax income of $38,920 I read:
Housing
study: $3,620
j+j+l: $0
Our baby is small enough that she’s in the same room as us, so we haven’t increased our housing expenses. At some point, though, we’ll probably move some place larger and then she’ll have her own room. That will probably cost something like $6k/year ($500/month).
Food
study: $1,270
j+j+l: $500
Lily spent most of this year exclusively breastfeeding, and we estimated that Julia is eating $500/year more in food. She’s now also eating a small amount of what we’re eating, but not enough to notice. Many people in the study are probably using formula which is surprisingly expensive.
Transportation
study: $1,130
j+j+l: $0
We don’t have a car, and take our baby on the bus and subway with us in a front carrier. Trips to doctors appointments etc are covered by our public transit passes, which we’d have regardless.
Clothing
study: $740
j+j+l: $150
Julia enjoys looking around at thirft shops, and found a lot of baby clothes there. We also got some clothes as hand-me-downs, and if you didn’t have access to these it would be more expensive. On the other hand, we’ll be able to pass these clothes along to other babies as ours outgrows them, and we have about three times more clothes than we really need.
Health care
study: $580
j+j+l: $3,150
We switched to a more expensive health plan that would cover more, and we were adding another person to our health plan. This would be much more expensive if my employer didn’t cover most of our health insurance. This also includes various other expenses, like copays, diapers, and baby bottles (for pumped milk). I included our whole “gear” category here, even though some of it would fit better under “misc”.
Child care
study: $3,250
j+j+l: $1,600
We haven’t used daycare much (details) but in our area the going rate is about $290/week ($15k/year).
Misc:
study: $440
j+j+l: $0
I included this in other categories.
We saved $3k on housing and $1k each on food, transportation, and childcare. We did spend a bit more in other places, though.
According to a study cited by Julia in another blog post, the costs of raising a child are roughly constant over his or her childhood and adolescence (see image below). This would suggest that the total parenting costs for Julia and Jeff will be around $360,000, or $245,000 in present value (at a 5% real discount rate). For comparison, Brian’s estimated present-value cost of parenthood is $300,000, while Bernadette’s is $184,000 (thought the latter is expressed differently and doesn’t take into account opportunity costs; see here for discussion).
During this period Julia was off work entirely for the first five months after the birth, which made for a lot of lost wages. Since then, however, we’ve changed our schedules so Julia’s working 70% as much as she was before the baby. My guess is that over the next year lost wages will be lower, around $8-$10k. Then once they’re in elementary school this will decrease even more.
How do you explain the discrepancy between your predictions and those that would follow from the study cited above?
The study you link to isn’t considering lost wages, and lost wages are by far the biggest expense for us.
Yes, you are right:
It’s remarkable that you managed to spend so much less than the study estimates: less than half of those in the lowest income bracket, and about a fifth of those in your income bracket.
Let’s look at it by category. The numbers for the situation most similar to ours seem to be the ones in “Table 2. Estimated annual expenditures on a child by husband-wife families, urban Northeast, 2012” on page 27. Looking at age 0-2 and average pre-tax income of $38,920 I read:
Housing
study: $3,620
j+j+l: $0
Our baby is small enough that she’s in the same room as us, so we haven’t increased our housing expenses. At some point, though, we’ll probably move some place larger and then she’ll have her own room. That will probably cost something like $6k/year ($500/month).
Food
study: $1,270
j+j+l: $500
Lily spent most of this year exclusively breastfeeding, and we estimated that Julia is eating $500/year more in food. She’s now also eating a small amount of what we’re eating, but not enough to notice. Many people in the study are probably using formula which is surprisingly expensive.
Transportation
study: $1,130
j+j+l: $0
We don’t have a car, and take our baby on the bus and subway with us in a front carrier. Trips to doctors appointments etc are covered by our public transit passes, which we’d have regardless.
Clothing
study: $740
j+j+l: $150
Julia enjoys looking around at thirft shops, and found a lot of baby clothes there. We also got some clothes as hand-me-downs, and if you didn’t have access to these it would be more expensive. On the other hand, we’ll be able to pass these clothes along to other babies as ours outgrows them, and we have about three times more clothes than we really need.
Health care
study: $580
j+j+l: $3,150
We switched to a more expensive health plan that would cover more, and we were adding another person to our health plan. This would be much more expensive if my employer didn’t cover most of our health insurance. This also includes various other expenses, like copays, diapers, and baby bottles (for pumped milk). I included our whole “gear” category here, even though some of it would fit better under “misc”.
Child care
study: $3,250
j+j+l: $1,600
We haven’t used daycare much (details) but in our area the going rate is about $290/week ($15k/year).
Misc:
study: $440
j+j+l: $0
I included this in other categories.
We saved $3k on housing and $1k each on food, transportation, and childcare. We did spend a bit more in other places, though.