Raising a Child Today Could Cost a Quarter of a Million

These days, raising a child is a very costly undertaking in the United States. It could cost up to a quarter of a million dollars and that's excluding college fees! The U.S. Department of Agriculture released this estimate for middle income couples taking health care, clothing, food, child care/education and housing & transport into account.

The latter is the most costly by far, coming in at nearly $108,000, followed by child care and education which would cost $44,400. The average cost of food when raising a child to 18 in the United States works out at $39,000. All factors together come to a whopping $245,340.