Getting Started: Child Expense Estimate

In the “Child Expense Estimate” section we want to anticipate future changes in child expenses. This is especially helpful for new families who are anticipating changes in childcare expenses, activities, food, and clothing for example. It can also very helpful for established families who anticipate their child expenses will drop as their children leave the home in the future.

The platform uses national averages to help estimate how child expenses will phase in... and out… over the course of your plan. This section is for informational purposes only, and will not directly affect your plan, but it can be used to make more informed decisions about future child expenses in the Future Cash Flow section.

For new families it can be helpful to use the national averages as a starting point but then make changes to reflect your situation or location.

For example, you may expect one parent to stay at home with the children, which would reduce the need for childcare. This can be changed by reducing daycare and after-school care to zero and recalculating the expenses…

Or you may live in a high cost of living area and expect childcare costs to be higher and/or parental leave to be shorter. In this case both the estimated monthly cost can be increased, for example to $2,000 per month, and the timing of those costs changed to start at 1 year old rather than 1 and a half…

Similar changes can be made to the various spending categories to get a sense of how expenses will change as children get older. This can be especially helpful for new families who are anticipating large increases in spending as they start a family or grow their family. It can also be helpful for growing families who expect child expenses to drop off as children become more independent. It can be helpful to anticipate lower expenses before retirement and an increased capacity to save.

Example for New Family

Example for Established Family