Numerology: Kids Ain't Cheap

Those same friendly people who brought you the Food Pyramid have been tracking the cost of raising a child since 1960, and not surprisingly, it’s more expensive than it was then, and moving forward it will be even more expensive.

The latest Department of Agriculture child-rearing study–Expenditures on Children by Families–reports that a two-parent, middle-income family (with income from $56,870 to $98,470) can expect to spend $221,190 (or $291,570 when adjusted for inflation) to raise a child born in 2008 over the ensuing 17 years, or from $11,610 to $13,480 per year, depending on the age of a child.