$4 Million Dollars to raise a Child in HK?

[carang]

my son is doing: putonghua, violin, brazilian soccer school, tae kwan do through his school... cost per term is $1440 total...i guess we could add those on

but to me, those are "luxuries" and should not necessarily be added on.

to me "the cost of raising a child" should ONLY include MUSTS... everything else is just down to choice. you don't HAVE to learn PTH, but you DO have to eat etc.

[evgreen]

There was another article today in scmp about couples in hk choosing not to start a family. One woman's anecdote went something like...fearing the lack of hospital beds, uncertainty of securing a good school, unable to raise a happy child. People with children have to worry about this stuff ANYWAY. Isn't it just a fact of life??? If you ask me, the woman was just too afraid to admit she was selfish. Nothing wrong with that and I agree selfish people shouldn't be having children. Hong kong is as secure of an environment as it can get. Schools are never perfect, but there are options of course! And the public health system while can be strained is first rate.

[thanka2]

For us, having children hasn't been that expensive so far. I'd say that the birth of my son in the States was the biggest one-off expense we've had. That was around $10,000 USD (about 78K HKD!) My daughter's birth in HK was around $1,000 USD.

My son was breastfed for six months and then formula fed for about six months. =$4,000 HKD
My daughter has been breastfed until now and hasn't done any formula (1 year).=$0 HKD (MAN! It feels good to write that 0!)
My son was in diapers for about 2.5 years.=$15,000 HKD.
My daughter was in disposables until recently so...=$6,000 HKD
Switching my daughter to cloth diapers.=$2,000 HKD
My son's nursery school was about $2,000HKD/month and he went for about 6 months.=$12,000 HKD.
My son's kindergarten is about $1,2000 HKD/month (including all extra costs like bus) and he's gone for 19 months so far.=$22, 800 HKD
I spend at max about $700 HKD on clothes and shoes for my children every 6 months.=$3,150 (son)+$1,400 (daughter)=$4,550 HKD
I spend probably $2,000 HKD on activities fees every quarter for my son but he's only been in activities for the past year or so....=$8,000 HKD
Food is kind of a negligible category right now but probably a high estimate about $2,000 HKD/month of our food budget goes to feeding our children but previously after my son turned 1-year-old it probably was at most $1,000 HKD/month.= $54,000 HKD

So, if I didn't calculate incorrectly we're up to $126,300 for two children, ages 4.5-years-old and 1-year-old (not including hospital fees which adds on another $86,000 HKD!)

It's really interesting to add up the the figures and realize how much money does go into raising kids. It sure isn't for the financially "faint of heart." LOL.