Cost of Raising a Child

Anyone who is a parent knows that raising a child is expensive.  It starts out with baby formula, diapers, wipes and turns into school programs, sports uniforms, and more food to feed their ever growing bodies.  We don't, however, fully realize how expensive those costs are.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average cost of raising a child born in 2012 to the age of 18 is $241,080!!!  Wow!

http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/14/pf/cost-children/index.html

Here's the additional shocker.  That doesn't even include the cost of college!!!  The average college cost at a public college in 2012-2013, according to the College Board is around $22,000.  Over 4 years that's $88,000 and rising!  

https://www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId=10064

So include college costs with the cost of raising a child to 18, multiply that by 2 or 3 depending on how many kids you have, and suddenly you are approaching $1 million to raise your kids!  Yikes!