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Look up google "cost of raising a child" and use the calculator. There is the basics like food, cloth, shelter and medical. You also will want to give your child an education, toys, shopping and entertainment. That costs plenty of money. The more you spend, the happier your child will be. You could go cheap and give him nothing except the basics. My parents spent a ton on me, my brother and sister so we would not be bored and miserable. Its the right thing to do. You want children, your gonna have to attain to their needs with money, time and love. If this means you have to make sacrifaces like not being able to get your dream house then be it. You have the responsabily that your children come first before "must have this house"
Nope! Money and THINGS do not inherently make a child happy. Of course if all anyone looks at is materialistic value by which to judge happiness, then I guess money would be right at the top of the list. Fortunately for most well adjusted children, their parents put love and time with them at the top. I know people who would be rather poor to you, but their kids are happy, loving, caring and very well mannered. They smile a heckuva lot more than people who think more of their $500 purse than their neighbor.
NAH, you don't have kids so you cannot accurately judge what parents spend on their kids. Heck my parents didn't spend near to $15,000 on each of us; probably more like $3000 or $4000 (and 1/2 of that would be our schooling). My parents weren't poor and they could've bought us everything our heart desired but they decided not to. They didn't want us to turn out to be a spoiled brat; we learned respect and the value of a dollar. And you know what? It's the best thing they ever did for us.
You can't buy your kids everything they want. They need to learn to not expect everything on a silver platter. When I was a teenager, I got a job and bought the things I wanted. I learned to be financially responsible with my money at a young age and it definetly helped when I moved out on my own.
The best thing you can give your kids is love and respect. Money isn't everything.
Hypothethically if I had children, they would earn an allowance for good behavior and get toys and trips like going to a carnival. I got stuff as a child when I earned it and expect future generations to enjoy what I did. They cant have everything but they should have something! Love costs nothing but everything else does.
Hypothethically if I had children, they would earn an allowance for good behavior and get toys and trips like going to a carnival. I got stuff as a child when I earned it and expect future generations to enjoy what I did. They cant have everything but they should have something! Love costs nothing but everything else does.
Well that's totally different than what it sounded like you meant in your other post.
I did not have much money growing up and today i feel so happy and proud that i paid for my own college and bought everything i have in life today all by myself. It's not all about all what you own in life. I know adults and kids who have everything they want in life and they are some of the most unhappy people i know.
$15000 a kid per year,that equals to $288.46 a week.I have 2 kids and they weren't lacking in anything and I spent nowhere near that amount.Don't ask me how much because I haven't got a clue.
The more you spend, the happier your child will be. You could go cheap and give him nothing except the basics. My parents spent a ton on me, my brother and sister so we would not be bored and miserable. Its the right thing to do.
Nonsense. My parents spent very little on me because they had very little and I was a happy child, not bored or miserable at all (I didn't realize until I got older that at one point in the 70's, my family of five was living on 10k a year). I remember a few hard times of not having much, but I never remember it being that much of an issue for me (I didn't know what I didn't have). When I was a teenager and things were a bit better, yes, my parents spent a bit more money on me, but I still had a lot of used and hand-me-down clothing, and I paid for a lot of my own clothing and all of my own education, and no, I didn't get a car for my 16th birthday. I survived
My sister's family does not make much money at all (and being that her annual income in no way even approaches 45k a year, there is certainly no way she is spending 15k on each of them) and she has three VERY happy, intelligent, and gregarious children who are a pleasure to be around.
Spending roughly 20-25% of our monthly income on our mortgage payment is the maximum we are comfortable with. Knowing how much we are comfortable paying each month on a mortgage, we then figured out how big of a mortgage we would apply for. We know that we will make a 20% down payment on the house we buy, so we did the math backwards: $total mortgage amount + $down payment amount = $cost of house we will buy.
Stats can be misleading. The average cost of a wedding is $30,000, so the stats say, but I think that is a bunch of B.S. I didn't spend anything near $30,000, and very few people I know spent that much on their weddings. You can spend as little or as much money on your kids as you want. You have to have a place for yourself to live, so housing shouldn't be much of a cost. If you use public schools (which you have to pay taxes for anyway if you own a home), that's not much of a cost, just have to pay for incidentals. Clothing, toys, vacations, etc. are as cheap or expensive as you make them. I suspect healthcare is possibly one of the largest expenses. You have to live within your means. I don't think children are cheap, but plenty of poor folks have children so obviously it can be done with little money. lol
Stats can be misleading. The average cost of a wedding is $30,000, so the stats say, but I think that is a bunch of B.S.
I agree. I got married a few years ago at the Tradeswinds Resort in St.Pete on the beach and my total down to the napkins was just over $6000. Have to say food alone was $4,000 for 70 guests. That's where the hotels rip you off. I did my own decorating for the reception and made my own message in a bottle wedding invivations.
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