Benefits and Costs

A traditional life has benefits:

Inflation Widens Married Couples’ Money Lead Over Their Single Friends
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The median net worth of married couples 25 to 34 years old was nearly nine times as much as the median net worth of single households in 2019, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

In 2010, married households’ median net worth was four times as much. And now, after a spell of rapid inflation and more than two years of pandemic living, single people are getting left further behind, say economists at the Fed and elsewhere.

A traditional life has costs:

It Now Costs $300,000 to Raise a Child

The cost of raising a child through high school has risen to more than $300,000 because of inflation that is running close to a four-decade high, according to a Brookings Institution estimate.

It determined that a married, middle-income couple with two children would spend $310,605—or an average of $18,271 a year—to raise their younger child born in 2015 through age 17. The calculation uses an earlier government estimate as a baseline, with adjustments for inflation trends.

The multiyear total is up $26,011, or more than 9%, from a calculation based on the inflation rate two years ago, before rapid price increases hit the economy, the Brookings Institution said.

Note that the cost does not include college tuition and expenses, which currently total $142,000 for an average four-year degree. A private college diploma costs over $200,000.

The benefits are in doubt while the costs are certain. Married-with-children may be tradition, but it is likely to be the life led by fewer Americans.