List the main costs of having a child in Singapore and put a rough figure on each.
Mei and Daniel live in their own flat and have started talking about having a child. Mei's sister, who has a two-year-old, told them to "budget for the things you can't see yet."
It sounded like a joke, but she meant three things: the months of unpaid leave she took, the infant care fees she didn't know about until the waitlist call, and the grandparents' help that saved her thousands but couldn't be counted on every day. Most people underestimate what a child costs because they think of diapers and milk and miss the larger items. To avoid that, go through the first five years in order, starting before birth, and write down every cost, including any income you give up.
Spending starts during pregnancy with prenatal checks and scans, followed by the delivery and the hospital stay. Delivery and hospital costs vary a lot depending on the hospital, the type of delivery and the ward you choose. MediSave can be used for delivery and some pregnancy-related costs, up to limits set by CPF Board, and some hospital plans cover parts of delivery costs. Check what MediSave and any insurance will pay before you choose a hospital, then plan to pay the rest in cash.
Then there are set-up costs: a cot, a pram, a car seat if you drive or take taxis, clothes, bottles and other items. Hand-me-downs from family can keep these costs small, but without them set-up can run to a few thousand dollars.
Mei and Daniel estimate S$3,000 for delivery and prenatal costs after MediSave and insurance (an example figure), plus S$2,000 for set-up. They need S$3,000 + S$2,000 = S$5,000 before the baby arrives.
After birth, costs shift from one-off items to monthly ones. The largest monthly cost is usually care, because someone has to look after the child while both parents work. The main options are:
infant care (care for babies at a licensed centre) or childcare (care for toddlers at a licensed centre) a domestic helper grandparents or another relative one parent staying at home
Each of these costs a very different amount. A helper means a salary, the levy set by the Ministry of Manpower, insurance and her living costs. Grandparents may charge no fees, but they often come with a monthly allowance, and their help can stop if their own health changes. Childcare fees vary by centre, and government subsidies administered by ECDA (the Early Childhood Development Agency) bring them down. The subsidy you get depends on things such as whether the mother is working and your household income. Check the current subsidies and conditions on the ECDA website, and use the after-subsidy fee from centres near you in your estimate.
Everyday costs come on top of care: diapers, milk powder or formula if needed, food, clothes (children outgrow them every few months), medical visits and vaccinations, and enrichment classes if you choose them.
Mei plans to go back to work after six months. For year one they budget six months of infant care at S$700 a month after subsidy, which comes to S$4,200. Diapers and milk are S$250 a month, or S$3,000 for the year, and clothes and other items are S$100 a month, or S$1,200. With doctor visits and vaccinations at about S$600 for the year, their year one total comes to S$9,000.
For years two to five they estimate childcare at S$650 a month after subsidy (S$7,800 a year), everyday costs at S$300 a month (S$3,600 a year) and medical costs of S$500 a year. That gives S$11,900 for each of those four years.
The largest cost is often one that never arrives as a bill: the drop in household income. Parents in Singapore are entitled to some government-paid leave around the birth, subject to eligibility, and you can check the current leave schemes on the Made for Families website, madeforfamilies.gov.sg. Many parents take extra unpaid leave after that, or one parent moves to part-time work or stops working for a few years, and each of these is a real cost that belongs in the budget alongside fees and diapers.
Mei plans three months of unpaid leave after her paid leave ends. Her take-home pay is S$4,000 a month, so the leave costs 3 x S$4,000 = S$12,000. Working part-time for a year would cost more than three months of unpaid leave. If she stopped work for several years, the lost income would be far larger than every other line, and it would also reduce her CPF contributions for those years.
Their total for a little more than five years, before any government support, is S$5,000 before birth + S$9,000 in year one + S$12,000 in lost income + S$11,900 x 4 for years two to five = S$73,600.
Your own figures will differ a great deal depending on your care arrangement, your choice of hospital and how much leave you take. For most families the largest items are care and lost income, and people rarely mention either when they talk about the cost of a baby. Lesson 6.2, "Baby Bonus, the CDA and other support", covers government support around the birth and shows what the government contributes against a total like this, and Lesson 6.4 builds the total into a year-by-year budget.
Work through it in the same order. List prenatal checks, scans, delivery and the hospital stay, and check what MediSave and insurance will pay before you pick a hospital. Add set-up costs, allowing for any hand-me-downs. Choose a care arrangement and price it, using after-subsidy fees from centres near you if you plan to use one. Add everyday monthly costs. Check paid leave on madeforfamilies.gov.sg, then add any income lost through unpaid leave, part-time work or stopping work, including the CPF contributions that would go with it. Total everything by year for the first five years, so the child goal on your sheet starts from a full list.
When you write your own list, separate the figures you have checked from the ones you have guessed, and mark each guess so you know what to replace when you get real quotes.
Write down each cost for a child's first five years, with an estimate and where the figure came from. Use made-up figures where you don't know.
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