What price to do you put on a family?
About $30,00 a year per child until they reach adulthood, according to research, and that’s a cost too high for a growing number of Australians.
Several decades back, most young couples were married and starting a family by their early 20s, typically having three or four kids when it was all said and done.
These days, Aussies have children much later in life and are considerably more likely to have just two, with the number of solo child households rapidly on the rise. The country’s birthrate has collapsed so much that it’s running below ‘replacement’ levels – that is, without immigration, the population would be declining.
“Having children is a life-changing and joyous experience for most parents, but it also comes with added expenses that can push the budgets of even the savviest savers,” finder.com.au money expert Gary Ross Hunter said. Analysis by the financial comparison website of various measures put the cost of raising a child between $159,000 and $548,000 over the course of 18 years.
Having three kids used to be the norm – now it’s increasingly uncommon, with costs a big motivator for smaller families. Picture: Richard WalkerIn-depth research from the University of Canberra modelled three different family scenarios to give an indication – low-income, middle-income and high-income households.“It found that the cost of raising two children would likely range from $474,000 to $1,097,000 over the course of their childhood,” Mr Ross Hunter said.
