At the end of each year, my son’s daycare sends us a PDF that details how much tuition we paid. It’s a helpful bit of information to have. My family is fortunate to be in a position where we don’t have to budget to meet our financial goals, so we’re always admittedly unclear about how much we’ve spent in any given category each year. Outside of our mortgage, taxes, and other fixed costs, I often don’t know what we actually spent on things.
Daycare tuition is a fixed cost though, so I do know exactly what we spent in that category. And last year, according to our payment receipts, our family spent $16,029.99 to send our son to daycare 5 days per week from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. Depending on your situation, that might seem like a lot of money. Or it might seem like a reasonable amount to pay for childcare.
Children completely change your life. No matter what your situation is, if you have kids, you’re going to have to pay for childcare. You’ll either pay for it with your time. Or you’ll pay for it with your money.
In this post, I want to do a bit of analysis on our daycare costs and go through the thinking we did when deciding to send our son to daycare.
Analyzing Our Daycare Costs
As previously mentioned, last year, we paid $16,029.99 to send our son to daycare 5 days per week from 8:30 to 3:30. He’s in daycare year-round, minus a short winter break, various holidays, and any days he misses because we’re traveling or he’s sick. That gives him about 35 hours per week of daycare for about 48-50 weeks per year.
35 hours per week of daycare seems like a good balance to me. Since I don’t have a regular job, I’ve got a lot of flexibility with pickup and drop-off times. If I was still working my regular lawyer job, my son would have to stay at daycare until 5:30 or 6. It’d cost us a little more and would give us far less interaction with him during the week. Picking him up at 3:30 is pretty ideal. He still spends time eating breakfast with me in the morning, gets his time at daycare, and still has plenty of time in the later afternoon to spend at home with family.
From a cost perspective, it seems to be worth the cost also. If he’s in daycare for 35 hours per week for 50 weeks, that’s a total of 1,750 hours in a year. Breaking it down on an hourly basis, we paid $9.15 per hour to send him to daycare. From a pure arbitrage standpoint, if we can make more than $9.15 per hour, then it seems to make monetary sense to send him to daycare.
I was actually a bit surprised at how little we paid per hour for daycare after running the numbers. Even on the low end, if he missed an entire month of daycare, we’d still have spent just $9.58 per hour for daycare. My assumption was that daycare cost us much more than this. Obviously, these costs are relative, and when added up, it does add up to a lot of money over the course of a month. But when you’re in a financial position like my family is, we’re really not paying that much for daycare.
Daycare Is About More Than Just Money Too
A question I’m sometimes asked is why I don’t simply stay home with my son. After all, I don’t have a regular job anymore and the job I do have is writing words on a blog. I could easily be a full-time stay-at-home dad.
I have two answers for this. First, from a purely monetary standpoint, if it costs just $9.15 to $9.58 per hour for me to send my son to daycare during the week, then so long as I’m able to make more than that per hour, it makes sense for me to work and have him go to daycare. I’m not killing it compared to what some bloggers are able to do, but I’m earning enough to make more than $9.15 to $9.58 per hour. Just from a monetary arbitrage standpoint, it makes sense for us to send my son to daycare.
But the second reason – and the main reason I send him to daycare – is that I think it’s good for him. I’m not an expert on childcare by any means and I don’t want to delve into the very muddy waters of how to raise children, but to me, getting interaction with other kids and developing social skills is a good thing for his development. Even if I didn’t earn any money, I’d still opt to send my son to daycare simply because I think it’s a positive experience for him.
I think some people fall into this trap where they think of every decision in terms of money. In reality, the decisions we make are never just about money. They’re about other things – some conscious, some unconscious. Life is far too complicated to base our decisions on what puts or keeps the most money in our bank account.
I opted to quit my job as an attorney years ago because it was the right decision for me. It wasn’t right from a financial standpoint though. I doubt I’ll ever make as much blogging as I could as a biglaw lawyer. But money wasn’t the only reason I made the decision to quit law. I wanted other things too.
I Don’t Know How People Balance Kids And Normal Jobs
One thing I’m happy about is how quitting my job to write and work for myself changed the flow of my day-to-day life. Before, it felt as if my life had to revolve around my job. These days, it’s the exact opposite. The work I do fits around my life.
I have no idea how our family would have balanced childcare with full-time jobs. Even getting my kid to daycare on time in the morning is difficult for me. The idea that I’d not only have to get my kid to school but also get myself to work by a set time seems impossible. If you’ve followed this blog before, the turning point that led to me quitting my job was when I got lectured at work for not getting into the office by a specific time. I can only imagine I’d have been getting more lectures now since I’d probably be late for work every day.
And picking up my kid on time is another thing I can’t imagine doing with a regular job. When I worked at my regular job, I rarely got out of work before 6 pm. I’m sure I’d have figured something out eventually. But the fact that I can go pick up my son whenever I need to is huge.
Our situation is working out pretty well. My wife has less flexibility with her job since she has set office hours. She works for herself, so she has more flexibility than others, but still less flexibility than someone like me. Our current situation seems ideal. One parent works full-time. The other parent still works, but with far more flexibility, allowing us to work around the daycare schedule and get the right balance of time with the parents and time at daycare.
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More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:
- Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
- Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
- Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
- Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
- Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
- KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
- Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
- Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
- Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
- Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with just $10 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Webull (20 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 20 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
- Moomoo (15 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 2 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- SoFi Money ($325) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $300 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
- Upgrade ($300) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $300 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $300 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($175) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($800) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- Fifth Third Bank ($200) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
- GO2Bank ($50) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $50 referral bonus.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link. Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($25) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $25 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
- 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $800 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
We are a one household income and we still send our kid to daycare. We are immigrants and we speak Spanish at home so it is critical for us for our son to get the social interactions as well as pick up English. The one things that worked for us (semi planned) is that our boys are a spread apart such that we didn’t have them both at daycare at the same time. That really helped our pocket.
Daycare is about social skills and other things for the kids.