Did anyone read the Straits Times article on entitled The $900,000 Singapore child that was published today? All parents and to-be-parents must read this article. The author is Joseph Chong who was the former CEO of a financial advisory firm. It is an amazing article which provided the figures to back up why many couples do not wish to have children.

According to Mr. Chong, a family need to spent $600,000 in real dollars to raise a child assuming 1 child family. It takes $500,000 for each child for a two-child family. Thus, for a two child family, it means $1,000,000 less in retirement money for the parents!

Assuming $500,000 per child for argument sake, there is another additional $400,000 paid by tax payers because of state subsidy. This ‘subsidy’ includes the imputed rental of the government schools. Private schools have to pay rental but government schools do not. So ...