Childcare costs: Parents now pay £67,000 per child in total

[KateMumsnet]

According to a report released today, the cost of raising a child and supporting them through university has risen to £227,226, with childcare costs showing the biggest annual rise at 3.7% - almost twice the rate of inflation.

In total, parents now pay an average of £67,586 per child for childcare - and, according to the report, mothers believe that they need to earn an average of £26,000 a year to make returning to work worthwhile.

Does this chime with your experience - and if so, how has it affected your family? Have you had to make difficult decisions because of the cost of childcare? We'd love to know what you think.

It is certainly hard although 30 years ago we coudl not afford to buy in Central London so bought a tiny place in zone 5 because London house prices were so much higher than elsewhere and interest rates at one point went up to 12% which was not fun.

www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgage-rates-history-0112.aspx
We also suffered the housing market crash of the 1990s and I think had had to borrow 5x earnings when rates rose again in one day from 8 - 12%. Sold two buy to let flats for 50% less than we paid for them. not all a bed of roses over the last 30 - 20 years and generations before simply could not buy because it was unaffordable and rent was always the norm for many and will always be.

It is certainly wise given the 2014 new mortgage rules to buy before you breed though so buy as young as you can as grotty and out of the way as you can manage it as at least that's a start and ideally encourage teenagers to pick work where pay increases rather than stays the same between age 25 and 70.

People who save to have children are going to be older, many over 35, and with that comes the higher probability of complications. Complications are expensive and fertility treatments, high risk pregnancies due to age, premature babies and the care of mothers post delivery is way more expensive. I had DD when I was 31 and DS at 32. If I have more it will be in the next 18 months because quite frankly I don't want to be 40+ pushing kids out. It was hard enough at 31/32!

House prices are nuts and I don't know how someone graduating today is supposed to be able to buy their first place. I was able to buy because I worked 3 jobs, two of which paid huge hourly rates. Those jobs are now minimum wage and taken by young East Europeans. Quite frankly I think the only way to get ahead in London is to leave! Far better off being in 2nd tier cities (Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol etc) if possible.

I am not saying it is easy nor was it. The house we bought 30 years ago which most people could not as you had to have two professional salaries to buy in zone 5 then and now, we were paying 12% interest on. My daughter has just been offered a 2 year tracker at 1.44% (repayment 848 a month) and 5 years fix at 2.64% (the one she is taking) flat in zone 2 - £250k mortgage. If you take our first house price 30 years ago and borrow the same multiple and apply 12% that is £600 a month.

In other words prices may be up but if you are paying 1.5% not 12% that does make a bit of a difference which is one reason people in professional jobs can afford to take out big loans in London as interest rates are so very low.
I am not saying it is easy. My other daughter and her husband have a very large mortgage on a tiny 2 bed in zone 1.

As I have university age and older children and teenagers too I know exactly how hard it is and indeed always was and of course no one has it harder than most of our ancestors (including my grandfather living in a house with 26 other young men in 1901. He slept in a dormitory of clerks in Newcastle).

Anyway back to the thread topic - yes childcare is expensive here. When we used to have much bigger income differences between rich and poor in the 1800s labour was dirt cheap and people had loads of servants. Even my parents' house built in 1928 had a room for a live in servant (and it was not a particularly big house). It was just par for the course that anyone middle class would have a few servants and that is still the case if you go to work in Dubai or South Africa - lots of cheap labour. if want our more equal society here then labour is expensive. If we moved to much higher taxes such as something more like 50 - 60% and had virtually free childcare that might be popular with some, but not all people.

In London, a tiny part of the UK.
My father's parents' 4 bed house with cellar in County Durham today costs about £115,000.

As ever people have to commute into London from places like Watford where a one bed flat might be £140k. Under right to buy you may be able to borrow 90% so you would need to raise your £14k - which is £7k per couple - quite a bit yes but not impossible particularly if you take on the second jobs many of us have had to do in the past. Also once you have that 10% deposit the interest rate you pay probably under 2% today is a lot less than it used to be.

What's tough for my friends is the repayment of student loans. Most of my friends graduated with about £10-15k of debt. Most paid this off in 3 years by being very frugal. Aged 26 they started to save for a home and they are just now, 5-7 years later able to buy their first home. Kids are going to start in the next 2-3 years because the females are all hitting 35 and if you want 2 DC you need to get a move on. Some friends have started TTC and are finding they have fertility problems. Couple of friends are expected to pay for ivf. Those who did a masters are even further behind. Most of my friends who did a masters are looking at buying their first home at 35 and starting a family at 38ish.

Contrast this to DH who left school at 17 with no debt. At 22 he had saved enough to buy a small one bed flat. He was in a position where he could save to start a family. His mba was paid for by his employer and ironically we could have paid for it no problem.