Addition of New Family Member!



And so I just received my second bundle of joy about 2 months ago. After experiencing having two young children at home (my elder one is 18 months older), my wife and I sort of agreed to "stop at two".

"Maintenance" cost of children is really high, not only in monetary terms, but emotionally as well. While they are a joy to have, their insatiable thirst for attention sometimes make my wife and I wonder if it's a fair trade afterall. Only when they are taking naps (at the same time) will we get some breathing space.

Anyway, since this is a financial blog, I will briefly share the cost of my wife's pregnancy.

From the first consultation up till delivery via cesarean at Thomson Medical Centre, the total amount that we've spent is about $11,000. Below are some brief details on the pregnancy for reference:
  1. Total number of consultation with private gynae: 8 (each session costing around $160)
  2. No complications - smooth pregnancy
  3. Took the basic test for Down Syndrome [I think it's OSCAR test. The cheaper one]
  4. 3-nights stay in single ward in TMC
  5. Cesarean delivery
While I have the exact breakdown of the expenses, I don't think it's useful to share it here as everyone's situation will likely be minimally, slightly different. A ballpark figure should be useful enough for aspiring parents.

The cost of raising a kid is not to be underestimated. As much as we try to cut down on our expenses, there are many expenditures that simply can't be avoided. For instance, while we try to source around for free baby clothes and shoes and what-nots, and buy from carousell as much as we can, we can't use second-hand diapers and milk powder. Also, even if we don't believe in sending our children to "branded" pre-schools, we would be hard-pressed not to even send them to PCF or MyFirstSkool when they are about 3 years old. If anything at all, they will need to pick up important social skills. School fees itself will set a family back by about $500/month/child. 

And these just form the tip of an iceberg. Compound that over 20 years, the amount is phenomenal for a middle-class household.

Well...suffice to say that I just took 10 steps backwards in my journey towards Financial Freedom. Haha.