Based on those numbers daycare and College are a wash..

$300/wk at say 49 wks for 6 years is $88200. Just daycare. Not counting all the other incidentials.

$11 grand for 2 kids for 4 years is $88000. Just tuition. Not counting everything else.

If you throw in there everything else and your kids working a lot in the summer to help offset costs, and my kids not doing anything but rolling around drooling I bet it's pretty close.....

My wife did not work when my kids were little so I can't comment on day care. I think at some point the money wifey makes (unless she is a doctor or lawyer), is not worth the costs of day care. Maybe you could con a mother or mother inlaw to take the kids for a portion of that time to lessen the amount of daycare required:) . The public school system will alleviate your burden eventually:) . We sent the girls to a relatively inexpensive private school for 3rd thru 6th grade so I did have to spend a little more than if they had been in public school all the way thru.

In our case Elementary, Middle, and High School are going to be expensive for us. My wife wants to send them to private schools. But for this poll I just assume Public Schools. It didn't make financial sense for my wife to quit because she is a Doctor (PharmD). So I guess she wears the pants in the family...... Sometimes... ;)

I have 3 kids. 20, 17, & 11. I have had none in day care, 2 in day care. One in high school, one in middle, and one in elementary at the same time. I now have one in college, one in high school, and one in middle. I have one daughter who shops down town and one who shops at Goodwill. One who is an honor student and the other works her butt off to make Bs.
Not sure how you prepare for college expense. I can only imagine next year when I have one who will be a senior in college and another a freshman. They all are willing to work and do their part to help but tuition, books, food, vehicles, housing, incidentals. College is more expensive. Ask me how I know.

Ha! Your screwed Bill!:D

I am just hoping that the overpriced private university scam has self destructed in 17 years. How can it not, given the ridiculous rate of tuition growth?

It's insane that top quality education in this country has to come with the baggage of tenure, bloated bureaucracy and a socially forward welfare system for the "those that can't do" class. :mad:

Best thing to plan for is saving the moneyt and/or preparing your kid to receive a scholarship. That's just the financial end. As mentioned earlier it's really tough nowadays for a kid to work alot of hours and compete for the good schools.

The high school and college years can be expensive or as cheap as you want it to be (to some degree). My parents buy me most of the clothes i want, but I do spend the cash on stuff I really want. I drove the extra car for awhile, but then my dad bought me one (couldve done it myself) because I haul my sister around a lot. In terms of college, all the schools im applying to are going to be at least 40K, maybe 50K when all said and done. No before you start calling me spoiled I have had a job since i was 11 years old mowing llawns, then i started caddying now I do catering and still do the other stuff once the summer starts. He lets me save my money and has tought me to value it so that once I'm done with college he no longer has to support me.

So basically you can give your kids the world or you can make them pay their own way. You cant go wrong either way if you impart the right values on them.

We pay almost $2000 a month for our nanny. We could probably get one cheaper, but she is colleged educated, responsible and flexible.


I don't see how things could get more expensive without the kid going off the Princeton.

I heard that ten years ago when I was in high school. I thought it was a load of crap back then and I still do now. The single thing that got me disciplined enough to survive in college was having a job. The kids who played 3 sports, were in six clubs, student council and ballet were really just trying to make their college application look good. Coupled with the rampant grade inflation that occurs today, it's become a game about who can rack up the most things to put on an application. It has had the effect of making most of those things meaningless. Most high schools have multiple valedictorians and weighted grades and all sorts of other things that used to mean something, but anymore their just awards for attendance.

My daughters education at UC Santa Barbara is almost sucking every bit of discretionary income that I have. Son comes up for college in 18 months. Daughter will still be in school at the same time. Makes orthodontics look cheap.

One of my daughters is a high school gymnast and both are in band. The one in gymnastics can barely keep up with her homework in honors classes. They both are pretty busy with band in the fall. The one that plays no sports could work maybe 10 hrs a week, but we live in a rural area which would mean driving 15-20 miles each way to make $10.00 at at a fast food joint. I garantee they have more homework than I did when I was in highschool. They will both work this summer, but anyone who claims that every kid who wants to go to college can easily make enough to do it is just plain wrong. I am not saying it is impossible, but college tuition has just gone thru the roof.

I received very little assistance in the 80's (from my parents at least, I joined the Army reserves for the college assistance), but I truly believe times are a changing. If I had boys, I would probably demand more from them as far as cars and toys go, but I choose to give my daughters a reasonable amount of help where I can. It would be unthinkable to me to tell them that they cannot be in band and that they have to pay for everything themselves including rent, clothes, food, college tuition, car insurance, car repairs, car payment etc etc, all on a $10,000/yr burger flipping job.

Maybe if they decide they want to live in a trailer park with 2 kids and a drug habit at 19, I will quit helping them, but until then, I will give them some modest support.

We`ll save the daycare because my wife doesn`t work, and we`ll save the college because, as a member of the faculty, my kids get free tuition where I work. And if they don`t like that college, the other choice will be to go to college in France with grandma...

Aurel

I dont want to brag about the socialist country that we have up here but daycare is $35 a week.

You can also save a lot if your wife is breast feeding but this is another story.

College? I am not there yet but I believe it is around $500 a year.

Try a nanny and two in private school too - whew - glad we don't have a nanny - although she was excellent a and certain piece of mind comes with that...

College cost will exceed day-care costs hands down. You're failing to take into account food, books, lab fees, clothes, game-boys, x-boxes, phones, small applainces, PCs, car insurance, used car for them, damage repair to your car, constant cries for money, posting bail....

Also gotta figure wedding costs for girls...

Aurel

Well said, and right to a good point!

When are kids most expensive? When you find out they are yours...

Seriously though, mine are hopefully pretty much at their peak. Two teenage boys, one in college and one in a private high school. Tuitions, car insurance, and FOOD. My God, and FOOD. When these two are gone I'll be able to feed a small African nation...

I say spoil the crap out of your daughters, make them ultra-materialistic lil witchs thinking that the guy they will marry will be just like daddy - they will go through 4 maybe 5 marrages all ending in divorce but she will get every last dime from each poor idiot then she will come to the realization that there is no substitue for daddy and will have you move into her Belaire home with 3 maids and a cook. The young Danish nanny will be watch after you grand kids while she as at the spa. You will be live'n large off of all the money she squeezed out of the fools who thought she was 'catchible'.