Hi, we’ve raised a kid ourselves……a lot of what’s on your list doesn’t belong there. Loss of income of 100K, buying station wagons for 30K, moving, and rent including utilities... none of that has ANY business being on the list. The calculation just turned out to be very one-sided. Yes, daycare is expensive—depending on your income—(we were in the highest bracket ourselves...) but even so, it was well under 100 euros a month at the reputable Catholic daycare here. Costs for the child’s savings account? You can probably do without that; it has no place in the calculation. 3K in healthcare costs? Do you pay for EVERYTHING yourselves? For us, health insurance covered that... and so on and so forth... I just find this calculation completely out of touch with reality—sorry.
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@ZaphodB And I think your attitude is out of touch with reality. If I didn’t have kids, we’d be DINKS driving a small car. Without kids, I wouldn’t have bought a fancy car or switched to part-time work. How can you attribute these expenses to anything else?
Daycare costs vary depending on the location and state. We’re actually glad that the prices are only what’s listed here. We were on the verge of signing a contract with a daycare center for over 1,000 euros a month. Luckily, we managed to find something else at the last minute.
Of course, you can get by without a children’s savings account. But we have one. So that’s another expense. This isn’t a “these are the absolute minimum expenses for a child” list, but rather what our child has cost us.
Healthcare costs: Our child had to go to the hospital. In that situation, we felt it was important to have a private room for recovery. We paid for that out of our own pocket. On top of that, there are private health insurance premiums.
Daycare costs vary depending on the location and state. We’re actually glad that the prices are only what’s listed here. We were on the verge of signing a contract with a daycare center for over 1,000 euros a month. Luckily, we managed to find something else at the last minute.
Of course, you can get by without a children’s savings account. But we have one. So that’s another expense. This isn’t a “these are the absolute minimum expenses for a child” list, but rather what our child has cost us.
Healthcare costs: Our child had to go to the hospital. In that situation, we felt it was important to have a private room for recovery. We paid for that out of our own pocket. On top of that, there are private health insurance premiums.
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@DonkeyInvestor Don't get me wrong. I would have done something similar, especially with the clinic—in fact, that's exactly how I handle it for myself... for the most part, these ARE simply not ESSENTIAL expenses that are ABSOLUTELY necessary. But—if you can spare the money—it makes sense—no question about it. I just take issue with the argument that you can’t have kids because you can’t come up with 50K a year for them. If that were the case, humanity would probably already be extinct… let’s just say. It’s just whining from a position of privilege. By the way… I don’t have that 30K car either; for used cars, my limit is somewhere around 10. Just as an example. If you can afford it—go for it. It’s TOTALLY fine. But I still stand by my view that some of the things you listed are NOT ESSENTIAL.
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•@ZaphodB All right, then we’re in agreement on that. I also mentioned in the post that you can get by on much less. But having kids does involve financial sacrifices. Depending on your individual situation, these can be greater or smaller. If I were to live in an area with lower rent (and lower salaries), my costs would probably be cut in half.
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