FIRE and Kids – The cost of raising children in Australia

From Aussie HIFIRE

This post has been inspired by this recent podcast featuring three of the biggest names in the Aussie FIRE blogging community, and the follow on discussions in the Aussie Firebug Facebook group about how much it costs to raise kids in Australia. As all three acknowledge they don’t have kids so it’s not something they really have any experience with.

As someone who has two young kids I thought it would be useful to write about it from my perspective. Obviously my situation isn’t the same as everyone else’s, there are plenty of people who would be horrified with how much we’ve spent, and others who would wonder how we manage to spend so little. Everyone’s situation is different, so what works for my family wouldn’t necessarily work or others.

My oldest child has only just started school this year so I can’t really speak from experience beyond the 0-5yo age range, but I’ll talk through some of the typical costs, what we have and haven’t spent money on so far, and what we’re anticipating in the future.

cont...

 

I had 4 children, 3 boys first, and a daughter, most expensive years were when the boys were between 13-17, the amount of food they ate was amazing, they would attack the cupboards as soon as they got home from school. Luckily we had good schools close by, Normanhurst Boys High, and for my daughter, St Benedicts at Penant Hills. School shoes were a big expense when they were growing up as well as the extras such as money for school sports, transport etc.

 

We have 6 kids. The two largest expenses for our kids are food and private schooling. The food expenses just keep escalating as the kids get bigger and start to becoming teenagers. Especially with 3 boys. We spend the same on food each fortnight as we do on our PPOR mortgage.

Realistically, early retirement is on the cards for hubby (if he wants to), but not for another decade yet. Mainly because neither of us want to sacrifice the lifestyle we have or are currently able to provide our children.

 

We've got 3, and they've been pretty cheap really up until now - currently 3 at private school, needing tech, uniforms, sports, and related paraphernalia...

 

I have 0 and I'm glad I never went down that road, I think the world is too populated and people are ignoring it like the elephant in the room.

I don't have anything against kids, in fact, ironically, I enjoy working with them daily and my business is structured around the education industry which makes me a lot of money, but like most things in life, we humans will learn our lessons only after the damage has been done

 

Good on you to help with the population problem. Its not the faster reproduction rate that is the bigger issue, its the slower death rate. Medicine has evolved quite a bit to keep one alive for longer.
In fact, the birth rate has been decreasing for some years now.

 

Discussion here..

FIRE and Kids – The cost of raising children in Australia : fiaustralia

 

I am one of 13 children. 11 boys, 2 girls, all from the same mother and father.

We lived in a log cabin we built ourselves from trees we cut down ourselves. Mum and Dad had a bedroom and all the kids shared the one loft style bedroom. We lived on a property an hour from the nearest town, totally off grid. We didn't have all the latest mod cons. We didn't get a brand new bike for our birthdays or a mobile phone and tablet each. We didn't go to private school.

Having said that, 8 out of 13 went on and completed university. The other 5 have completed trades. We all remember our childhood fondly (with the usual baggage of course lol), we never went hungry (our weekly groceries filled 3 trolleys to overflowing but I honestly couldn't tell you what it cost. Lots of homebrand and nothing fancy), we had friends, got birthday and Christmas presents. Technically we lived well and truly below the poverty line but compared to people in real poverty, we had a comfortable life.

Suffice to say, kids can be as cheap or as expensive as you like.

 

They're certainly not cheap! The biggest expense for us was childcare - we were about $20k out of pocket each year, after government rebates etc, and the price just kept going up, sometimes every 6 months.

Was like getting a huge payrise once the little one was in primary school (total cost about $1k/year for fees, uniform etc).

... and we've recently found out we're going to go through it all again starting next year!

 

I've only got a 2 year old (nearly 3) and I must say that so far, he's much cheaper than people make out.

Also food: I'm 6'6" and 115kg (could lose 10kg) and I eat a lot of food. But doubling our food bills still wouldn't make that big an impact on our overall spending. Certainly wouldn't stop me from retiring.

 

Woohoo! Congratulations!

 

FIRE the kids to enable FIRE. Otherwise....

 

LOL.

 

From a recent newsletter from Scott Pape:

"According to a study by Suncorp, the average Australian parent spends $297,600 raising a child to age 17."

 

2x kids under 5. Biggest expense? Childcare ($18k out of pocket per year) and when we were on 1x income (we still wanted to live like we were on 2!). My mrs basically works to stay in the workforce, remain skilled and predominantly for her sanity!

 

I imagine the real cost starts if you want to send them to a private school especially. Down $40k a year straight away.

 

Anywhere from 5k ea p/a.

Kids are good business owners. Have a natural ability of extracting a price at the limit of what the customer is willing bear.

 

Literally Kids give you an emotion money can't buy. Worst/Best investment I've ever made.