How expensive is it to raise a kid in Boston?
How much does it cost to have a kid here? It’s a burning question I receive from many women planning on having a child. It’s an excellent query, because there are so many choices parents have, all with differing expenses. I wanted to write about my actual costs raising a son in Boston to share my experience as a mother and financial professional. When I read general articles on the costs of a child, they don’t seem to apply well, so for others in the same jam, here are my insights.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects a child born in 2015 would cost $264,090 in the Urban Northeast up to age 17 (sorry, college costs not included)*. I’ve read articles about national averages, but I thought I would let my city-dwelling friends here know what an actual spend could look like to help prepare. To note, expenses could be drastically lower, especially if I took advantage of free public schools. Consider your specific priorities as you read this article and you may find extra cost-savings.
The USDA has been tracking the cost of raising a child since 1960 and their figures are used for state and local governments in determining child support. Using this source, I started my spending comparison. The USDA shows money going: 29% housing, 18% food, 16% childcare & education, 15% transport, 9% healthcare, 6% clothing, 7% miscellaneous*. When I attempted to use the same variables, here were my results: 37% housing, 16% food, 34% childcare & education, .01% transport, 9% healthcare, 2% clothing, 2% miscellaneous. Comparing myself to USDA, I found healthcare, clothing and food costs to be comparable. However, I found the biggest costly discrepancies were in childcare & education (16% vs. 36%) and housing (29% vs. 37%) with significantly more going towards those costs. I lucked out on not owning a car and mainly taking public transport or rideshare to make that category basically nil from the USDA allocation. I have a bunch of good “mom tips” to keep typical costs low, but I’ll steer this article toward the bigger allocation items, as they are the driving forces behind big costs.
Redfin Real Estate reported in October 2024 the median price of a home in Boston was $830,000. If you carry a mortgage, you are higher than the USDA spending for housing with housing prices. I can appreciate how many of my friends who have multiple children leave the city. Also, the cost of more than one private school education becomes monstrous.
Since my son is 17 now, I wanted to make sure what I spent on childcare a decade is still current so I revisited websites to make sure the costs were comparable. Hourly nanny rates are still around $20 per hour in Boston. I chose to have someone to come to my home daily, so I could go to the office and paid about $34,000 annually (plus employment taxes) for ages 0-3. I also paid for enrichment classes like French or marine science, so add in another $900+ per year. As kids get older, this turns into camp, which was about $5000 per summer. If you are lucky to have marvellous grandparents at your disposal to reduce childcare costs, this could be a huge savings when you have a baby.
By age four my son started private school, which started around $28,000 annually and increased to almost $40,000 per year by 7th grade. For US boarding schools, the number is close to $72,000 per year in the Northeast for high school. Boarding School in the UK just increased with a 20% VAT January 2025 bringing it closer to $78,000 USD (assuming an exchange rate of 1.27). It was more reasonable closer to $60,000 before the recent government tax. This does not include school uniform and extras. Running quick maths on school fees, that’s over a half million before college starts. Then you get to add on all the USDA categories for expenses beyond just education. Just to point out, private school costs can be more than college. Of course, I couldn’t leave college costs out of the conversation.
Attending private college in the Northeast can easily run over $80,000 annually to have your child enrolled living on campus with fees assuming no financial assistance. Depending your family finances, using the Student Aid Index (SAI) and scholarships you could pay a much smaller price tag for college, as most Americans do. Assuming the worst case four years, full pay could be over $320,000. Schooling alone pre-kindergarten through college full pay if you go private all the way your price tag could easily be over $900,000. There is your million dollar baby under these conditions.
Having a child is a poor financial decision. Being a financial advisor, a big part of my job for clients is to help them plan according to their life priorities and goals. So, if having a child is a priority, I hope this gives you a good glimpse to start preparing for a child. It’s easy to calculate expenses, difficult to value the intangibles you receive from being a parent.
*USDA report, Washington, DC published January 2017 “Parents Projected to Spend $233,610 to Raise a Child Born in 2015 https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/cost-raising-child