$310K to raise a child

Almost a third of a million dollars to raise a child excluding college cost. Let this sink in a bit.  So interesting to quantify this labor of love. 😊

Please do the financial planning before having a child. It takes a village to raise a child. In the big city, there is no village to help parents though. So many of them are on their own without extended family around to help while childcare is so expensive.

Someone once said to me that it doesn’t cost money to raise children. I was shocked by the illusion and denial.  Now, I realized that she was trying to comfort herself. She had five young children and relied on welfare program to make ends meet. There is nothing wrong with that. I truly admire her resolve and resilience and hope that there are sufficient financials support for parents to raise children. Otherwise, there will be a lot of suffering and social issues caused by a damaged childhood. Besides, parents are raising the future taxpayers and consumers which is doing the government and economy a great favor. They should be supported indeed. It is not just a personal decision.

Chinese government is scrambling to loosen up its one child policy to three per couple hoping to stem of low birth rate and aging population. The big concern is fewer working people available to support much more retirees. It will be an economic and societal issue.  Many developed nations face the same challenges. The situation will get worse. Government will be forced to use more economic incentives.

Japanese government has female minster to look after this issue. They created some match making programs to facilitate single people to date and get married. What a fun job! 😊 Perhaps, there will be economic incentives to get married in the future. God, single people really got discriminated against. Perhaps, some single people will cheat the government by just living together simply for the reward. I can write a novel now. Just like faking a marriage to get the US green card. My novel should be a Rom Com. They fall in love in the end and have a baby because there is more reward by the government to have children. 😊