From food, clothing, education, hobbies and healthcare to entertainment and caretaker costs—having a child costs you a lot more than love and emotional energy. Moneylife offers clues on how to estimate and plan expenses so that the joy of parenthood is not buried under an avalanche of financial worries

Sucheta Dalal & Raj Pradhan

Raising a child from birth to the age of 21 would, on an average, cost approximately £218,000 in the UK says a wikipedia entry. Another study estimates that the cost of raising a child to the age of 17 in the US would cost $235,000 (about Rs1.40 crore). No such number based on any authentic study is available for India. More importantly, a sharp increase in salaries and job opportunities has led to a significant change in lifestyles accompanied by a big increase in spending on homes, education, health and entertainment. In fact, it is safe to say that few know how much they would need to earn and save to bring up children the way they would like to and also  have some savings left for their own retirement.

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