Cost Of Raising A Child

[drum]

how much on average would it cost to raise a new born from birth to uni,including the mothers health care,

[nam-thip]

Your looking at a small fortune to raise a child in LOS as private education for one does not come cheap over the long term.

Hope you have plenty of Thai baht cause your gonna neeeeeeeed it.

I can't come up with an exact figure as everyone's needs and wishes differ but decent basic education will set you back around 50.000 baht per year in total to include school-wear and books etc.

You have to consider that like many things in Thailand education is a money making business.

[drum]

is their no government funded free schooling in Thai,

[nam-thip]

is their no government funded free schooling in Thai,

Yes and No but you still have to pay for the uniform, books, transport, meals, etc which has to be included in the cost of raising a child.

To place your child in a government school is obviously cheaper as the education comes free but I reckon the standards are poor.

The figure i quoted was to educate your child in a mid-range private school.

Nurseries or pre-school doesn't come cheap either as for our 3 year old daughter it works out at 300 baht per day.

Government or private paid education?

You take your pick.

[torrenova]

Putting away Bt1,000,000 a year per child from birth will cover most eventualities.

Very simply I work out pre 11 costs / education at 500k a year, 11-16 education at 750k a year and 16-18 education at 1m a year. So you have:

500k*11

750k*5

1m*2

11,250,000

Vehicle purchase

1,000,000

Gap year

2,000,000

Overseas university at $100,000 a year = 3.5m a year, 4 years

14,000,000

Graduate school at $100,000 a year = 3.5m, 2 years

7,000,000

Overall, you have

35,250,000 or about $1,000,000

Putting away Bt1,000,000 a year will give a surplus in the early years which if invested, should increase the amount for later years. Of course, these are today's prices. What you put away will have to increase each year unless you are running at a large surplus.

The main consideration is that whilst schooling can probably be paid for out of income (if you have a decent income), overseas university costs are usually too high to pay out of income. Some sort of savings scheme will normally be required, or your kid is stuck without a decent education.

[PattayaParent]

I read something about 20 years ago that said that the cost in Canada of raising a child is in the region of C$2 million.

That should cover you for Thailand easily.

[quiksilva]

Why would you want to finance their gap year at THB 166,666 per month? Lucky kids you have there...

Personally I think they should be working that year, nothing heavy but they should fund it themselves. I have always held the view that its supposed to prepare them for the REAL world. Not some trust fund cushioned lifestyle, although if you have the means to do so, go for it, but hardly what I call advice for the average man in the street.

If the child has dual nationality then the option for them to receive schooling overseas at a higher level also exists which will cost significantly less than what has been projected above.

What I plan, is for my child to be educated from 16 onwards in the UK school system. What I would like to know is whether this would then give them a route to an English University at local rates?

[MrWiggle]

Build it and it will come...

[PattayaParent]

What I plan, is for my child to be educated from 16 onwards in the UK school system. What I would like to know is whether this would then give them a route to an English University at local rates?

No it wouldn't. You're better off going to UK as an asylum seeker.

Firstly they (and you) would have to be in England, and I beleive in 1 same local authority location, for 3 years prior to them going to uni.

Secondly, if the local authority consider that you had only returned to UK in order to avail of the system you would be excluded and your kid considreed as a foreign student, even if they have British nationality, and have to pay full fees.

I have links to this somewhere and will try to find them for you but work is a bit hectic this week so bear with me.

[Heng]

This is one of those threads along the lines of 'how much do you need to live anywhere.' It's all relative.

For US expats (2nd, 3rd, etc. generation inter-Thais included), I'd recommend maintaining your stateside residence (assuming of course that you're happy with whatever school district and state university education system) if you wanted to go the middle of the road but not too shabby by world standards education route. Depending on where you live (and true for my school district), the public education standard may even be considered relatively higher tier as well, and you can pop your kids into the system anytime you want, no matter where they have been living in the world, as long as your property taxes are up to date.

[GuestHouse]

What I plan, is for my child to be educated from 16 onwards in the UK school system. What I would like to know is whether this would then give them a route to an English University at local rates?

No it wouldn't. You're better off going to UK as an asylum seeker.

Firstly they (and you) would have to be in England, and I beleive in 1 same local authority location, for 3 years prior to them going to uni.

Secondly, if the local authority consider that you had only returned to UK in order to avail of the system you would be excluded and your kid considreed as a foreign student, even if they have British nationality, and have to pay full fees.

I have links to this somewhere and will try to find them for you but work is a bit hectic this week so bear with me.

Not entirely true - If the would be student can demonstrate that he was overseas because his parents were posted overseas by a UK based employer then he can claim to be a UK based student, regardless of how long he has been out of the country or whether he or his parents have maintained a home in the UK.

Its one of the very important reasons why expatriates working for companies based in the UK must obtain and maintain a continuous record of their overseas posting.

If the parents went overseas voluntarily, or changed employers overseas (ie left the employer that posted them overseas and hence left that contract but remained overseas) then the above 'small print - option' no longer applies - That said, I know of at least one parent who managed to get around this, change employers overseas and still get her daughter into a UK University as a UK resident student.

It's all about playing the game.

[PattayaParent]

Found the links, then had problems finding the threead.

Here you go Quicksilva

http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_shee...ort_england.php

http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_shee...pport_wales.php

http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/files/pdf/info_sh...n_fees_ewni.pdf

http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_shee...y_residence.php