We will all ALWAYS do everything in our power for our children.
Now, that being said – this is a blogpost from the perspective of a Financial Consultant, so let’s talk figures. A latest study from the “Zurich Office for Youth”, Credit Suisse and the OECD shows that the average direct cost of raising a child in Switzerland for a couple is 22’200 CHF per year, meaning over 18 years a direct cost of 400’000 CHF.
Beware, this does not include school fees – so if you think of sending little Heidi or little Einstein (I know he was German, but he became Swiss later on, so it still works) this amount can go up quite significantly.
Coming back to the figure of 400’000 CHF, it is split as follow:
- 32% on accommodation (the more children you have, the more this number goes down in terms of proportion of income)
- 18% on day-care (unfortunately Swiss day-care is the most expensive in the world)
- 17% on food (such costs go up as your baby becomes a teenager that can literally eat anything without putting on weight – I know, so unfair…)
- 13% for healthcare
- 6% on clothing (again, as you can imagine dressing a 13 – 18 year old is much more expensive than a baby considering you pay mainly for the brands our youngsters/teens so desperately need to forge an identity)
- 1% for telecoms (only considers here children above 13 years old – so if little Heidi comes asking for a phone at 10 years old, don’t hesitate – it’s not in the official budget from the Zurich Office – and if you can get away with this explanation, you’ll know as a bonus you have an aspiring public official in the family)
- 14% on entertainment & miscellaneous incidentals and accidentals
Now, this is where I must promote what we do before letting you go. So here it is: you can’t plan for the above “ongoing cost” of raising a child, but you can certainly make sure you plan for higher education needs so when university cost of living and tuition “hits you”, you are ready for it …
Until then, we love our children …
