About $1,744/month, every month, for eighteen years.
The shape of 18 years
A child is not one expense. It is a curve.
Monthly outflow per year of the child's age. Direct cash in cyan; childcare in violet, concentrated in the first years. The teen years rise quietly but never spike like the early ones.
Direct cashSource: Statistics Canada - Estimating Expenditures on Children by Families in Canada, 2014 to 2017
What it could have been
The same money, invested instead.
If you set aside $1,744/month in a globally diversified portfolio at a 6% real return, after 18 years you would hold roughly:
$675,479
At 6% real return · $376,668 contributed, $298,811 from compounding
About 1.8× the direct cost.
This is the opportunity cost in plain numbers. It is not an argument against children. It is the size of the choice you are making, so you can plan around it: a savings goal, an 18-year compounding account in the child's name, or simply a clearer head.
For scale
What else costs about $376,668?
Ten years of rent in a major city · $300,0001.3×
A full K-12 private school education · $300,0001.3×
A city apartment · $450,0000.8×
An established small business · $500,0000.8×
A family home in the suburbs · $700,0000.5×
Where the monthly cost goes
One child, one school month, eight buckets.
Monthly direct cash for one child, broken down by the cost table. Housing share and food dominate; phone and internet round to zero because they are typically already on the household plan.
Food$279
Clothing$124
Housing share$518
Healthcare$89
Transport$483
Childcare & education$216
Miscellaneous$278
See all scenarios at once
1 child
$375,552
$375,552
2 children
$585,984
$585,984
3 children
$778,644
$778,644
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