More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
With inflation skyrocketing in Canada, many couples planning to have children may be wondering if they can still afford to.
Something as important as having children isn’t a purely financial decision, but affordability must be carefully considered as well. Statistics Canada does not collect this information, so I’m going to have to do some estimations based on U.S. data and one Canadian study I found.
Moneysense's 2015 study determined that the average cost to raise a child until the age of 18 was $253,946. By applying 11.37 per cent worth of inflation between 2016 and 2021, we get $281,880 as the total cost to raise a child until the age of 18 in 2022.
Since these results are fairly close, I’m comfortable with using $281,880 as a ballpark estimation of the cost to raise your child until the age of 18 in 2022. While that is a daunting figure (more than a quarter of a million dollars!), it’s a lot more manageable when you break it up into shorter time periods:
While these may be estimations, it is clear that having children a huge financial decision. Having kids will likely be one of the biggest expenses a person will have over the next 18 years of their life, so it’s wise to plan carefully.
If your monthly income minus expenses is above $1,305, you can likely afford to have a child in Canada.
Looking at these numbers, are you concerned that you won’t be able to afford to have kids? Keep in mind that these are average numbers, and many parents are able to manage with much less. If you have a lower income, there is also some governmental support, such as the Canada Child Benefit, that you can turn to.
Money is certainly not the be-all and end-all when it comes to deciding whether to have children. If you can’t afford the average amount listed above, but are confident you can raise happy and healthy children, then money should not be the main determining factor.
Everyone wants to provide a lifestyle for their children that is as good as or better than the one their parents gave them. The problem is, it’s much harder to do that these days.
The cost of living has increased substantially since the 1990s, as has the cost of housing and post-secondary education. It will take careful financial planning and hard work to raise a child, but it is possible.
Christopher Liew is a CFA Charterholder and former financial advisor. He writes personal finance tips for thousands of daily Canadian readers on his Wealth Awesome website.
An earlier version of this story stated that the cost of living in the U.S. is lower than in Canada. In fact, the U.S. currently has a higher cost of living.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”