An article came up on Straits Times the other day which placed the cost of raising a child in Singapore $900k. That is $500k from the parents and $400k from the government through subsidized education. And the figure is before university education. The article goes on to compare to a US family which will take about $360k to raise a child or $140k less.

So where does the $140k go to? According to the author, bulk of the amount goes to private tuition. I must say I am not entirely surprised as I do know people who spend more than a $1k per month on their child’s tuition. During my school days, I could pretty much do without private tuition and relied solely on school education as well as self study. According to the parents nowadays though, that is not possible anymore.

So what changed during the time I was ...