Cost of Becoming a Mother

NYT article shows more than just the cost to house and feed a child. The real changes that come into your life as a woman chooses to become a mother.

The Cost, in Dollars, of Raising a Child

She includes college tuition, assumed contributing to the child till 25 and (most interesting) her loss in pay as a mother. "half a year of forgone wages while on maternity leave and earning 73 percent of what men earn instead of 90 percent like nonmothers (or in my case, the equivalent fraction of my current salary) for the remainder of my career, according to aColumbia University study on the motherhood wage." 

I was shocked to hear this stat. Yes, we would be busier and need to go home early a few times to pick up Junior, but to lose over 25% of your salary potential because you had a child!

On the flip side, a father's income increases by 4%.

At the end, for her family income of around 100k and in the NY area: $1.8M. I'm assuming this isn't per child but rather for the first child.

The author of this article writes a longer essay about choosing to have a child or not on a financial side. If you feel no maternal urges, should you even have a child?

Opting Out of Parenthood, With Finances in Mind

I read another article on the marginal cost of each additional child and it wasn't much more. At least for the day to day stuff.

The Marginal Cost of Children

Highly interseting reads considering more and more of America's educated are marrying older and are therefore delaying this decision.