[refurb]

With that income? Sure, if kids came into the picture during the last day 3-4 years it would increase his expenses, but he’d presumably also have another income, at least for a few years?

I don’t disagree that for middle income earners kids are a huge expense, but when you’re making $350,000+ each year, $30,000 for childcare isn’t a dramatic expense. Same with all the incidentals.

[martincmartin]

The biggest expense is college, at least in the U.S. If you retire before they apply, you may want to be conservative and set aside the cost of the most expensive college. MIT is $77k/year [1]. For two kids, that's $616k. And it increases faster than inflation, estimate 6%/yr. If you have enough money in the bank that you're financially independent, they won't qualify for need based aid, you'll have to pay the sticker price.

Columbia is more expensive.

And if one of them wants to become a doctor or lawyer, now you need to pay for grad school too.

[1] https://sfs.mit.edu/billing-repayment/undergraduate-tuition-...

[refurb]

Not going to lie, but Americans paying 100% of their kids college is kinda weird as an immigrant.

My kid can take out loans and sure I’ll help, but hell no I’m not bank rolling multiple kids at full private school tuition.

At least where I grew up a solid public school college was not an impediment to a good career.

I’ve notice Americans tend to hyper-optimize - I love it when parents tell me they bought in Palo Alto because the public school was rated a 9.3/10 versus San Mateo at 9.1/10.

[rubidium]

“ Americans paying 100% of their kids college is kinda”. As a non immigrant it’s weird to me too.

There are a class of parents who obsess about “the best”. Best schools, best tutors, best nutrition, best ‘experiences’, best neighborhood. It’s a hedonistic treadmill in the making.

[refurb]

Exactly. Saving $200k per kid for private college is not a “need” its a luxury. But a lot of upper class Americans see it as the “baseline”.

[stagger87]

Using numbers from only top private schools makes your point fall a bit flat.

[ac29]

Seriously. I went to public school, and the 2022 estimated cost of attendance, including tuition, room, food, books, transportation and personal expenses is around $30k/year. Certainly not cheap, but over $20k of that is just the living expenses. Tuition is relatively affordable.

[kfajdsl]

Every time I see things like this it makes me so grateful that we have a state scholarship (HOPE). I pay like $200 a semester on tuition, then around $1000 on other school fees.

If I don't have to relocate for job opportunities (currently in Atlanta), I plan to stay here and encourage any future children to stay in-state. That's of course assuming that the state doesn't kill off HOPE by then.