I checked in with friends who have a preschooler about their annual kid expenses — just stuff directly and quantifiably spent for the child, like daycare, clothes, etc., not taking into account things like renting a bigger apartment than they might if there were no kid in the picture. The current annual total: and estimated $16,500. Now, some of these expenses, like clothing, can vary significantly, but I’m taking this as still being reasonably close to what I would need to be able to spend, particularly as part of the reason I chose these friends to ask is because I feel they provide for their child at a similar level to what I would want to be able to do – he’s definitely not spoiled, but does not go wanting, either. (The other reason is that off the top of my head, they were the only friends I could think of who had a kid in any sort of day care – surprisingly, most of the other people I know with kids either have older children or a stay-at-home-mom.)
Of course, day care for babies costs more than for toddlers and preschoolers. And babies go through lots of diapers, which toilet-trained preschoolers do not, and babies also need to go to the doctor more frequently, and grow out of their clothing and need more clothes much more quickly. These same friends estimated that the annual tab for the first couple of years was probably more like $20,000.
So…could I spend more than a third of my take-home income on baby-related expenses? Not including the indirect expenses like additional rent (surely for the first year or two a 1BR apartment would suffice – but that would still cost a good bit more than I currently pay for my half of a 2BR apartment). If I had a child, I would certainly be quitting my music lessons for several years — even with unlimited funds, the time crunch would, I think, dictate that the music study go by the wayside — so that’s roughly $3000/year saved immediately, and there would be some tax breaks and such, but…still, it would be a big bite. Daycare alone would be more than I currently spend on rent.
I make a little more than the median family income for Boston. I’ve often thought this before in various contexts, and now I’m thinking it again: How on earth do those other families manage?
