conversation: User (missionhipstergirl): "I'm 30/F and of course the question of whether or not I want to have kids eventually is looming over me. \n\nI got to wondering how much it actually costs to raise a kid to 18 and thought I'd share what I found, especially since I see a lot of "we just had a baby what should we expect?" questions posted here.\n\n[True cost of raising a child] (http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/cities/cost-raising-child/). It's based on the [2013 USDA report](http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/expenditures_on_children_by_families/crc2013.pdf) but takes into account cost of living in various cities. The national average is **$245,340**. Here in Oakland, CA it comes out closer to $337,477!! And this is only to 18, not including cost of college which we all know is getting more and more expensive.\n\nThen [this other article](http://www.todaysparent.com/family/family-budget/million-dollar-babies/) goes into more of the details of other costs, saying "Ward pegs the all-in cost of raising a child to 18 in the U.S. at around $700,000, or closer to $900,000 to age 22"\n\nI don't know how you parents do it, this seems like an insane amount to me! \n\n-----\n\n**Edit** \nI also found this [USDA Cost of Raising a Child Calculator](http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/calculatorintro.htm) which lets you get more granular and input the number of children, number of parents, region, and income. Afterwards you can also customize how much you expect to pay for Housing, Food, Transportation, Clothing, Health, Care, Child Care and Education, and other: "If your yearly expenses are different than average, you can type in your actual expense for a specific budgetary component by just going to Calculator Results, typing in your actual expenses on the results table, and hitting the Recalculate button."\n\n**Edit 2**: Also note that the estimated expense is based on a child born in 2013. I'm sure plenty of people are/were raised on less but I still find it useful to think about.\n\n**Edit 3**: A lot of people are saying the number is BS, but it seems totally plausible to me when I break it down actually.. I know someone who is giving his ex $1,100/mo in child support. Kid is currently 2 yrs old. By 18 that comes out to $237,600. That's pretty close to the estimate. \n\n**Edit 4**: Wow, I really did not expect this to blow up as much as it did. I just thought it was an interesting article. But wanted to add a couple of additional thoughts since I can't reply to everyone...\n\nA couple of parents have said something along the lines of "If you're pricing it out, you probably shouldn't have a kid anyways because the joy of parenthood is priceless." This seems sort of weird to me, because having kids is obviously a huge commitment. I think it's fair to try and understand what you might be getting into and try to evaluate what changes you'd need to make in order to raise a child before diving into it. Of course I know plenty of people who weren't planning on having kids but accidentally did anyways and make it work despite their circumstances. But if I was going to have a kid I'd like to be somewhat prepared financially to provide for them.\n\nThe estimate is high and I was initially shocked by it, but it hasn't entirely deterred me from possibly having a kid still. Just makes me think hard about what it would take."
  Self: "From a very very early age we introduced the concept of money to our kid with a moonjar where she received money (though not for chores at our house - we all do chores just for being in the household) she had to split it between spending, saving, and charity. She had her own candy route with about 30 machines by age 11 making a couple thousand dollars a year (I loaned her the money, but she paid me back), then sold it at age 13. Now she makes investments - we own part of an office and apartment building together, and a small stock portfolio. We decide on charities together, she can spend her money on what she wants (mostly cosplay), and the majority of profits she rolls back into investments. All of the investments are meant for college, but at 14 her net worth is about $30k - more than 40% of U.S. households. She may get hit by a bus tomorrow or get a face tattoo at 18, but in terms of giving her the financial basis to succeed I feel like we've knocked it out of the park. Kids are what you put into them (hehe, j/k).\n\nClearly YMMV, but a lot of the stuff you re-use with kids (same crib), already pay for (house, utilities, insurance, food-Americans throw away nearly 50% of their food), and stuff that you either get for free or sell later isn't factored in (high chairs, car seats, clothes). \n\nIt's not fair to say that a third (if there are 3 of you) of your housing costs go on the kids shoulder, for instance. The report makes an adjustment that works out to that single kid getting 1/6th of the household expenses, but even that doesn't mean that your household expenses are actually going up by 1/6th. You don't typically see an increase in house costs the day your kid is born unless you're moving - we actually live in a much smaller house today (44% smaller) than we did when the kid was little."
  