A coworker of mine was relaying a story to me about his daughter. “”When my daughter was four years old, she was saying ‘Daddy, I want this, I want that, I need this, I need that.’ In exasperation I said ‘I’m not rich’ and what my daughter said floored me ‘Daddy, you’ll never be rich, you have me.’ I bent over laughing”

For a middle class family earning $61,530 and $106,540, the costs of raising a child can be staggering. According to USDA.Gov (http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2014/08/0179.xml), a child born in 2013 will cost $245,340 to raise from birth to 18 years old. But in reality, cost of living — from housing to education to childcare — varies so much by location that the price of raising children can range precipitously.