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Calculate the cost of parenting with NatWest’s new tool
NatWest have launched a new online tool to help parents plan for the future costs of raising a family.
Raising a child from birth to 17 years in the UK costs an average of £307,083.10.
More than 1100 of the bank’s savers have set ‘baby’ or ‘education’ as a savings goal so far this year.
Raising a child from birth to 17 years in the UK costs an average of £307,083.10, according to NatWest’s new ‘Cost of Raising a Child Calculator’.
NatWest’s new Cost of Raising a Child Calculator comes after the Budget 2014 announcement of a childcare tax break for working parents. With the tool, anyone can get an idea of exactly how much each stage of raising a child will cost, find out where they fit in the overall average and begin to put some savings away to help with those costs.
The tool is divided into four sections. First up is the cost of raising a baby from 0 – 12 months old, then a toddler (1- 3 years), a child (4 – 12 years) and a teenager (13 – 17 years). Each group also tells you the national average and is divided into a variety of categories including nappies, childcare, food, clothing, books, toys, nursery, furniture and other equipment, otherwise known as miscellaneous.
At a glance you can see that the cost of raising a child (£184,173.10) is more than double the cost of raising a teenager (£73, 373.25). Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the biggest differences is in the amount spent on toys. For children, it’s £6,480 but for teenagers it’s just £3,000. With clothes on the other hand, teenagers win out with a spend of £9,000 in just five years, while on children the spend is more than £300 less in nine years.
David Crawford, Head of Savings at NatWest, said: “If you’re having sleepless nights worrying whether you will be able to afford the cost of having a baby, wondering how much the next few years of child rearing will cost you, or you’re simply pondering how your spending compares to other parents around the UK, the Cost of Raising a Child Calculator can help”.
“If you’re a NatWest customer you can also use our 5* Fairbanking accredited Savings Goal tool to start saving some of what you’ll need to raise your family. It’s these little steps now that will really help you in the future”.
In 2013 over 80% of customers achieved their ‘baby’ or ‘education’ savings goals using the NatWest Savings Goal tool.