Post by violet on Jun 5, 2010 21:19:58 GMT 11
According to the Australian Council of Social Service at the end of 2009, the cost of raising a teen is thus:
"Every parent who has raised a teenager knows that kids can be expensive. Families on low incomes rely heavily on family payments to pay for groceries, clothes, school books and housing expenses for growing children," said Clare Martin, CEO, Australian Council of Social Service.
"While kids cost more as they get older, family payments decrease with age. Our research shows a 16-year-old costs $200-$290 a week. Yet when a child turns 16, payments drop by $14 to $102 per week, which is less than half of the costs of these children."
I put the cost of teens in bold above.
I love seeing the costs in dollar form. It's irrelevant; I would not have kicked them out because they cost too much ;D but it is interesting to see what the baseline cost of raising a child is.
I'd love to know what the cost breakdown is, because of course the estimated cost depends on the family lifestyle, too.
Here's a whole-of-life cost estimate from another research body - the whole article is here: www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/family-v-freedom-20100426-tmgc.html
Family v freedom
April 26, 2010
MONEY
It seems like a no-brainer that children are money vacuums. From the first purchase of the pregnancy bible What to Expect When You're Expecting on, the bills just keep coming. According to 2007 figures from the National Centre for Social and Economic Funding, it costs the typical Australian family $537,000 to raise a child from birth to the age of 21. If parents choose private education, the cost skyrockets. The Australian Scholarships Group estimates that 12 years of schooling for a child born in 2010 will cost between $110,000 and $424,000, depending on the school.
And in the same article:
But not everyone agrees. Research released in March 2008 from Curtin University of Technology compared the net wealth of parents and the child-free (including housing, shares, superannuation and savings), and found that parents were only marginally worse off.
Associate professor Mike Dockery, who produced the research, says it might be wrong to think of children as costs at all when in fact they are a net benefit. "If you choose to have children and it works out, then you are better off than if you didn't have them."
Elisa
"Every parent who has raised a teenager knows that kids can be expensive. Families on low incomes rely heavily on family payments to pay for groceries, clothes, school books and housing expenses for growing children," said Clare Martin, CEO, Australian Council of Social Service.
"While kids cost more as they get older, family payments decrease with age. Our research shows a 16-year-old costs $200-$290 a week. Yet when a child turns 16, payments drop by $14 to $102 per week, which is less than half of the costs of these children."
I put the cost of teens in bold above.
I love seeing the costs in dollar form. It's irrelevant; I would not have kicked them out because they cost too much ;D but it is interesting to see what the baseline cost of raising a child is.
I'd love to know what the cost breakdown is, because of course the estimated cost depends on the family lifestyle, too.
Here's a whole-of-life cost estimate from another research body - the whole article is here: www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/family-v-freedom-20100426-tmgc.html
Family v freedom
April 26, 2010
MONEY
It seems like a no-brainer that children are money vacuums. From the first purchase of the pregnancy bible What to Expect When You're Expecting on, the bills just keep coming. According to 2007 figures from the National Centre for Social and Economic Funding, it costs the typical Australian family $537,000 to raise a child from birth to the age of 21. If parents choose private education, the cost skyrockets. The Australian Scholarships Group estimates that 12 years of schooling for a child born in 2010 will cost between $110,000 and $424,000, depending on the school.
And in the same article:
But not everyone agrees. Research released in March 2008 from Curtin University of Technology compared the net wealth of parents and the child-free (including housing, shares, superannuation and savings), and found that parents were only marginally worse off.
Associate professor Mike Dockery, who produced the research, says it might be wrong to think of children as costs at all when in fact they are a net benefit. "If you choose to have children and it works out, then you are better off than if you didn't have them."
Elisa
