JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Starting a family is a big decision, and the job of being a mom or dad is getting harder. New research shows millennials are having a tougher time than their parents when it comes to raising children.
A millennial is someone born in the early 80s to the early 2000s. The costs of things like groceries and gas have gone up tremendously. Childcare costs and college debt are also having a big impact on millennials.
From toys and technology, there are new products out every day and it's not making it easy for parents to save money.
"Food costs-we try to eat healthy so that becomes expensive," said Taylor Day. She is a mother of four, including 5-year-old Emily. Rising children as a millennial can be expensive, so she does what she can to save.
"I do shop for their clothes and home things at consignment sales and I do a lot of that to cut down on clothing costs and toy costs," said Day.
A chart from the Washington Post breaks down the total cost of raising a child in 2013 compared to 1960. Many of those costs have gone down over the years, except for childcare and education. It was about two percent of the cost of raising a child in 1960 compared to nearly twenty percent in 2013.
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Low paying jobs also makes it difficult for this generation of parents. The typical 18- to 34-year-old makes $2,000 less each year than young workers did in 1980. Carrie Jones with Life Planning Partners says millennials are the most educated generation but, college debt is hurting them.
"More than half of them doing that are borrowing money for tuition and college costs so 62 percent of millennials already have student debt they're paying and on top of that add childcare and what it costs to raise a child and it makes it difficult to create a household and a family," said Jones.
Jonnes says every family should have a financial plan. Know what your goals and values are to help decide what your financial priorities are. She says most importantly pay off your debt as soon as you can.