Kids are expensive, but not this expensive.

I was browsing the Get Rich Slowly blog today (see link to the right), and thinking how I didn't really like the articles on there so much, as the title. Get Rich Slowly is a great scheme. Instead of a get rich quick scheme, I'm on the get rich slowly boat, and I hope to have accumulated some form of wealth by the time I retire, and I hope to retire before I'm forced to do so.

But back to the real topic, on the Get Rich Slowly blog, I came across this article about the high cost of having children. Now, I agree with the premise, and expected to see some insight about how expensive clothes, diapers, toys, car seats, food, cleaning supplies, and so forth are. Because they are expensive. I've been noticing recently how much food is wasted by kids. But the Get Rich Slowly post mentions that whoever the author is, who has two kids, spends $800 a month on each child, just on health insurance, life insurance, and childcare.

Now, health insurance can be expensive. I shopped around a lot to find a plan I like that is very reasonable, and I attribute about $150 in health insurance costs to all of my kids, together, each month. In other words, $50 a month. We don't have life insurance policies for our kids, but those are really inexpensive, and Kelsea stays home with the kids, so we don't pay anyone else any childcare expenses. (Coincidentally, we have almost never paid for a babysitter, since we have family so close. Maybe we should start, so we can go out more.) Another interesting point about health insurance is that once you're on a family plan, an additional child doesn't increase your premium. We got that happy surprise recently. So I concluded that the author of the above mentioned post was spending somewhere in the range of $600 a month for child care on each child. That's a lot of money.

Kids are expensive, and they definitely delay the accumulation of wealth, but it's so worth it. It's also worth it to make sure your kids are raised by their own parents, not some stranger (or possibly friend) you pay $600 a month to take care of them the majority of their waking hours. I'm not going to rant about people who pay someone else to raise their kids, because it's a personal decision, and a difficult one financially, in some cases more than others. But I wish more parents would raise their own kids. There are way more advantages than saving money. Not the least of which are the happiness from interacting with your own kids, teaching them right from wrong, teaching them how to read, write, have good manners (a recent topic at our house), and getting hugs. Kids are messy, noisy, expensive, tiring, sometimes annoying, often wasteful, and always worth spending time with.

Afterthought: Another noted expense of kids is saving for college instead of saving for retirement. College is expensive, but my wife and I both paid for our own education (we are still paying for mine). I never expected anyone to pay for my college, though I did get some scholarships, and I do not plan to pay for college for my kids. That may mean they don't go to college, but if they do, they won't be wasting any of their time or any of my money doing it. College funds are admirable, but not necessary, and not in my financial plan.