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How Much Should I set aside for my kids?

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By Rena

As a parent, my key responsibility to my kids is to provide them till they are big enough to fend for themselves. This would include a roof over their head, necessities and a typical education (i.e. primary/ secondary school and local tertiary education), medical when needed. Whether I will leave them a legacy when they are big enough is not my responsibility. If I've taught them well enough and done my part, they should have the skills to survive and adapt to however the circumstance is when they are adults.



Hence, when we plan for our kids, we look at looking after them till an age of 25. Why 25? Most of my kids are boys. And there's national service, which adds 2 years before they could complete their tertiary education. Hence, assuming the JC route, plus 4 years of University, that would be up till age 25. With my youngest being 2 this year, I'll need to ensure they are cared for till 2044.

What if I'm not there? 

Then at least, I must make sure there's enough finances to help them through their childhood till age 25.

These are the things I look at: 

- home

- expenses (to live and to be educated)

-  medical needs

Home is taken care of with Home Protection scheme (HPS). 

We buy medical insurance to take care of the big ticket medical stuff. 

Then there are expenses to live and be educated. To do such an exercise, we made a very rough estimate that in 2021, each child needs $2000, or $6000 in total per month.  We'll support them all till 2044, and assuming inflation/ increase in expense per year is 3%. With that, we sum up all the total amount of money needed to reach this amount.


Yearmonthly expenseannual expenseAmount needed
2021$6,000.00$72,000.00$2,478,705.86
2022$6,180.00$74,160.00$2,406,705.86
2023$6,365.40$76,384.80$2,332,545.86
2024$6,556.36$78,676.34$2,256,161.06
2025$6,753.05$81,036.63$2,177,484.71
2026$6,955.64$83,467.73$2,096,448.08
2027$7,164.31$85,971.77$2,012,980.34
2028$7,379.24$88,550.92$1,927,008.58
2029$7,600.62$91,207.45$1,838,457.66
2030$7,828.64$93,943.67$1,747,250.21
2031$8,063.50$96,761.98$1,653,306.55
2032$8,305.40$99,664.84$1,556,544.57
2033$8,554.57$102,654.78$1,456,879.73
2034$8,811.20$105,734.43$1,354,224.94
2035$9,075.54$108,906.46$1,248,490.52
2036$9,347.80$112,173.65$1,139,584.06
2037$9,628.24$115,538.86$1,027,410.40
2038$9,917.09$119,005.03$911,871.54
2039$10,214.60$122,575.18$792,866.51
2040$10,521.04$126,252.44$670,291.33
2041$10,836.67$130,040.01$544,038.89
2042$11,161.77$133,941.21$413,998.88
2043$11,496.62$137,959.45$280,057.67
2044$11,841.52$142,098.23$142,098.23

As of 2021, I'll need to set aside close to $2.5 million for the kids. Well, me and my partner don't have this amount with us. To achieve this amount, my partner and I buy life insurance to help cover the shortfall. To get the most coverage for the least cost, we chose term life insurance.








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