Scott Burns argues that the main reason many young working families are broke is that they have children. The data in his column is revealing (and scary): if the cost of living of a young married couple is 100, having one child increases the index to 127, two children to 147 and keeps increasing as the children get older and peaks at 231 when the older child is 16-17 (Oddly the index decreases after the eldest child turns 17, presumably the kids are off to college by then and don’t rely on Bank of Mom and Dad for their tuition).
As new parents, we tend to agree with Mr. Burns. The bundles of joy cost quite a bit of money. But, we wouldn’t want to have it any other way, even for all the money in the world.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Jose Anes // Aug 24, 2005 at 1:47 pm
Interesting idea. I think there is some thruth in it.
Money and Investing
2 Jonathan@MyMoneyBlog // Aug 26, 2005 at 2:11 am
I think it’s good to know the facts of what having kids means financially before you have them, but if that makes you not have kids, then you probably shouldn’t have kids anyways. Of course, putting off kids until you are more secure is a different story
3 Michael // Aug 27, 2005 at 1:49 am
My wife and I waited ’til we hit 30 to have kids. Financially, I am glad we did. We’d have had a MUCH tougher time being parents in our mid-20s.
Now, being 30+ and having the energy to keep up with a 3-year-old … that’s another issue altogether.
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