My grandmother reads New York Magazine and recently handed me an article entitled, "The Outsourced Parent: The hands-free, do-nothing, price-is-no-object guide to rearing a child from conception to college." Being an avid reader of anything and everything kid related, I wasn't surprised by much that was in the article, like party consultants, baby nurses, personal drivers, professional potty trainers, behavioral specialists and the like. What was surprising was the price to raise a child from conception to college per "The Outsourced Parent": a whopping $4,184,633.
I understand that the article is called a "price-is-no-object guide," but consider this: A $4,184,633 total price tag represents, on average, $232,479.61 per year over 18 years. If a parent was to invest that entire amount per year in a simple money market account that earned an average of 4 percent interest over the life of the investment, after 18 years the grand total would be $5,962,035.59. (If a parent invested even half of the $232,479.61, that's still a respectable $2,981,017.79 after 18 years.) And that's a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, not taking into account monthly compounding interest or interest rate fluctuations or anything else.
I can think of a number of things I would do with $5 million, all the while spending time with my kids!
Read More
