Cost to raise child up slightly to $245,340
A message for new parents: get ready for sticker shock.
A child born in 2013 will cost a middle-income American family an average of $245,340 until he or she reaches the age of 18, with families living in the Northeast taking on a greater burden, according to a report out Monday. And that doesn’t include college — or expenses if a child lives at home after age 17.
Those costs that are included — food, housing, childcare and education — rose 1.8 percent over the previous year, the Agriculture Department’s new “Expenditures on Children and Families” report said. As in the past, families in the urban Northeast will spend more than families in the urban South and rural parts of the U.S., or roughly $282,480.
Yikes! Glad I'm not planning on adding to the family. Sticker shock indeed!
