Insuring Your Baby's Future Can be Expensive

Everyone knows that babies can be expensive.  Various internet and non-internet sources claim that it will cost over $200,000* to raise a child to age 18 (college tuition not included.)  I doubt the costs are linear, but that averages to over $11,000 per year.  Costs like diapers, food, clothing and furniture immediately come to mind, but there are plenty of hefty expenses that you might not have thought of.

How about insurance? Let's start with health insurance.  The additional cost of adding my son, Clark, to my wife's health insurance is about $250/month (plus co-pays).  That's the equivalent of a lot of diapers.  The irony is my wife works for a health insurance company.

Don't forget all the other insurances.  You may not have needed life insurance before you had a child, but it's probably a good idea now.  If you're relatively healthy and in your 30s, a decent policy should run between $30 and $50 per month for each parent (or at least each working parent).   You'll need to choose between whole or term life.  Be careful not to get too much insurance.  You never want to be worth significantly more dead than alive**.

There's also home or renter's insurance.  Before Clark was conceived, I was not that concerned about what a loss of possessions would mean.  However, the thought of him without any toys, crib or baby necessities was/is quite disturbing.  So now I need to add renter's insurance.  That's another $30 a month.  I'm also wondering if I need to increase my auto insurance policy now that he's in the car. You know, just in case.  That all adds up to a lot of "just in case money" each month.  To quote "The Homeboys" from In Living Color, "Mo money, mo money, mo money!"