15 Biggest Costs in Life

The best things in life are free. Or so they say. When we talk about “cost”, we can refer to time, money, and health to a certain point. In this article, we’ll explore what the 15 biggest monetary costs in life actually are.

1 – Living is expensive

Being alive is costly. There’s no doubt about it. If we look at our monthly expenses, we all have a similar list of expenditures. The department of labor says the average household spends $1,674 on housing a month. That’s quite a heavy amount to come out of your bank.

However, this figure can fluctuate greatly if you include transportation, your food costs, and how much you spend on monthly utility bills. These can fluctuate depending on where you live.

Health insurance can have an average cost per month of $495 with an average annual deductible of $5,940.

Often there’s not enough left to put away for retirement fun activities, repaying student loans, or your car insurance. But if you thought living was expensive, dying will also cost you arm and a leg.

2 – Funerals are expensive

Funerals can cost between $7,000 and $12,000. And it’s a tricky one to balance because obviously, you want the best for the person, but the reality is they won’t even know about it. Even still.

You want a lovely tombstone, a beautiful casket, and a floral arrangement that will brighten the mood. Even just a little.

It’s never fun to think about dying, but getting life insurance will alleviate the financial stress for the family you leave behind when you pass away.

3 – Getting educated

A college education can cost a heck of a lot. It’s estimated these are the annual budgets for undergraduate students:

– $17,930 for community college;
– $25,890 for in-state students at a four-year public college;
– $41,950 for out of state students at a four-year public college; and
– $52,500 for private non-profit four-year colleges.

These also may not include additional costs like room and board textbooks and other study supplies.

4 – Insurance

Essential and expensive. Those are the two words used to describe insurance. There are all sorts of insurance policies that you need to consider life, car, household, health, disability, dental. We could go on, you can reduce the monthly premiums by comparing prices and shopping around, but at the end of the day, it’s still an expense that eats away at you.

Your monthly earnings number five taxes tax is a sliding scale in most countries and an area of contentment in many too, particularly from the Uber wealthy who find, shall we say innovative ways to work around the system.

Pew research center conducted a poll that found that 79% of the respondents found that some wealthy people don’t pay their fair share in the USA. The amount of tax paid for those earning over a million dollars is 27.4%.

While those earning less than $10,000 received a rebate in the form of a refundable tax credit taxes, don’t have to be complicated.

5 – Fitness lifestyle

Being a professional athlete is a huge expense and being a novice even more so without the added sponsorships and extra deals on gear and access to places. We all try to go on a health kick or start a new hobby which requires a bunch of new equipment and probably ongoing memberships.

6 – Having a pet

According to the New York times, more people than ever before are buying pet insurance. A decent coverage costs between $30 and $50 a month. And that’s just for one pet. What about Scruffy? Molly and Cleo.

They’re members of our family. We have to keep feeding them gourmet food, paying for daycare, and throwing them birthday parties. There are recurring costs such as dog-walking $50 a week, pet insurance, $38 a month, and yearly checkups at $150 each.

Then there are incidental costs. Every family trip is now $200 more expensive. Then at the park, the dog bites another dog, or gets bitten, or eats something rotten. The bill can be stroke inducing.

7 – Having children

The costs are endless from birth to the age of 18 and beyond. It’s estimated that one child could cost roughly $233,000 with higher-income families shelling out in the region of $372,210.

The US department of agriculture breaks down as follows: housing 29%, food 18%, childcare and education 16%, transportation 15% healthcare 9%, miscellaneous 7% clothing 6%.

These are just an estimate. And regardless of your income, or whether both parents are working or one is staying at home, it is possible to still provide your child with what they need. Oh and don’t worry about the cost of the wedding or two or three weddings. They’re a bonus one to add to the list.

8 – Going on vacation

So you’ve got the wedding done and dusted. And now it’s time to have the honeymoon of your dreams. Where will you jet off to Croatia? Malicious? What about Zanzibar? And then you need a break and another break and a break from your break. If you’re not careful, you’ll find that your travel plans are a massive drain on your finances.

And instead of sipping a nice glass of wine in the middle of the afternoon, you’ll be filing for bankruptcy and longing for the days when you can dream about chilling out without the worries.

9 – Getting un-married

It’s estimated that the average divorce in the US costs around $15,000 per person. And that’s just the basics. If the divorce is all-inclusive you’ve got to decide who gets sole custody of the dog, and the children. It all adds up and you’re going to be accumulating a lot more costs.

Business Insider says the divorce rate is going down. Perhaps it’s because of the high cost involved. They gave rough breakdowns of these costs: filing for divorce $300, attorney fees from $2,500 up to several thousand mediations, up to $200 an hour. It’s all there adding up in your pocket and being burnt away.

10 – House and car maintenance

Sadly, no one can predict what their house or car maintenance will be like in the long run. You don’t know. Well, if they’re going to attempt to hang a picture ahead at once with a hammer, and the next minute you fallen through your floorboards into the basement.

The average annual maintenance could look something like $1,105, with 30% of that going into emergency repairs. So when you fall through those floorboards, the rule of thumb to follow is to save 1% of the value of your home.

So if your home costs $300,000 each year, you should save $3,000. In case of repairs and maintenance, we should set aside $1,186, and always check out those little nagging problems before they become larger than life and drain your bank account.

11 – The gym membership

Gyms need their members not to come to make real money, but they can’t just lock the doors. They can’t tell people not to show up. So they have to rely on consumer psychology to get you excited enough that you’ll sign up for a gym membership, but not so excited that you’ll get up an hour early to do some crunches before the workday starts.

How many times have we joined a gym and probably attended a few classes, then slowly stopped going regularly? And because it’s there in the background, we always have the temptation to keep going. But, we never do. However, the money comes out every single month without fail.

12 – Being retired

According to the Bureau of labor statistics, it costs $49,000 a year to retire. If your retirement lasts 20 years, that’s $980,000. Suffice it to say that money isn’t going to just fall into your bank account and you need to save it. And that is one of the biggest expenses in life today, saving up until the day you die. Pretty depressing right?

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To finish up, if we reflect on the costliest expenses in life it’s our mistakes. Often we have very little control over them, and we certainly don’t do them with intent. Possibly you’ve chosen a less than ideal partner who took you for a complete ride. You signed up for a job that you had doubts about but gave it a shot anyway.

And now you’re working overtime and having to cover the bosses’ illicit affair with his secretary. Our mistakes do cost us not only financially, but also emotionally as well, but the beauty about this expense is that it’s a learning curve, hopefully never to be repeated again.

And with that thanks for reading the 15 biggest costs in life.