This doesn’t even include vacations or costs for additional/better education.
Assuming you have 2 kids who both will stay till 25. You’re looking at 800k minimum, probably closer to 1 million. Invested in ETFs in all this time = 2-2.5 million.
Looks like FIRE isn’t even possible for >90% of the society with kids (including me).
What are your thoughts?
Welcome to the real world, Cortana!
Although to be honest you have to decrease this amount by effective tax deductions and state support for families. But still it is expensive.
It also seems to exclude the Kita for the first few years, as nowadays both parents are working. So add another ~2500CHF to that bill per child!
I’ve recently been getting YouTube ads for a Swiss startup company offering childcare loan financing.
In my opinion these are not really mustachian figures.
350.- per month for food for a 13-18 years old? At my parent’s house we were 5 people and they spent around 1’000.- a month for groceries and we ate a lot 
65.- per month for phone/internet? Do they need a swisscom all world unlimited subscription or what?
What exactly do they mean with “Wohnen”? Is this meant as their part of the rent? Seems way too high for me.
Also what are the costs fot health 185.- month after the health insurance?
Also as mentioned before you get tax reductions which amount to around 200.- a month as well depending on your salary. And you get 200.- per month child supplements
My parents didn’t even earn 100k combined and they RE at 57. They travelled for 3 months every second year after we left the house. It’s all a matter of lifestyle and frugalism in my opinion.
I think the solution to all this is just to earn at least 200k gross together. But if both are working, you’ll end up spending a lot of money for the Kita, so this might be offset.
Agree, however this highly depends on your situation. E.g. my wife only works 50% and we have parents family and friends close to where we live, which are more than happy to look after our kids (especially my parents, they were waiting for their first grandchildren and have more than enough time now that they RE 
). So we are looking at max. 1 day per week in Kita. Of course many people here in the forum migrated to Switzerland and don’t have any relatives living close and also two parents working 100%.
This is a low amount on a monthly basis, excursions are cheap and mostly 1-2 times a year, the most expensive excursion I made in school was 700.- for our Matura trip. The few books and writing material is negligible, that only becomes expensive at university, if you buy all the books they recommend (I bought only one book during my bachelor and passed just fine).
You don’t need to spend a lot of money and can still do wonderful trips. There are so many beautiful mountains to go hiking and lakes to swim, bring your own food and make a nice picknick, perfect trip for me.
Children don’t need 1000 of toys, most parents buy way to many toys for their children only to throw them away 2 months later when the child lost interest…
They budget leisure and public transport with 300-360 in this table. Club memberships are cheap 200-300 per year, most sports don’t need expensive equipment think soccer, volleyball, basketball, swimming, tennis, karate, etc.
You don’t buy your children a bike for 2000 only to use it 1-2 years until it’s too small.
All in all, as I said, it’s a matter of lifestyle. As mentioned above my parents had less than 100k combined and me and my two siblings came out just fine and had all we needed and I for one enjoyed my childhood and have a lot of awesome memories.
My daughter takes tons of pictures with her devices so that this year I was finally forced to upgrade to the 2 TB Apple family subscription! 
Err… not to pass judgment on the educational system here without context, but this seems like a pedagogical version of social media FOMO.
I perhaps from a different culture, but the above was a no-no in my schools (not that it did not happen outside lessons of course).
What is the source of this chart? The cost seems very upper middle class.
The highest cost of having children is:
On the other hand:
Child allowances and tax deductions are not to be sneezed at.
Holidays and life with kids are doubtlessly more expensive, but even here you have a huge choice over how much to spend and what to do. That discretionary spending still offers a huge savings potential.
I think that having a five-figure monthly family income should still allow you to do significant savings in Switzerland. Maybe not FIRE with 40, but still. If you set aside 2000 CHF per month over 20 years, you should still get to around 800k-1m CHF (5-7 % annual return) which will carry you far.
From experience waiting to be older and a bit better off helps (although the primary reason for that happening was finding someone with a mutual interest in mating)
The costs are subjective. It helped me to know approximately what we spend and a spreadsheet modelling more or less when we should reach FI. Based on that you understand the delay caused by lifestyle choices. For example we decided we could afford to move to a bigger place with a garden
Regards fancy smartphones and expensive sneakers. I see some kids getting them but mine will not. I do understand why some parents feel they need to buy them though - your story is very helpful @Patron
Grew up with three siblings on 80k salary and never missed anything. Holiday mostly in youth Hostel in Switzerland.
Now I have three kids and we combine for 200k gross and there is easily money for saving for FIRE.
2nd hand is the trick. It’s insane what you can find second hand. Example: kid bike like new, never used, from a suburban home for 30 chf instead of 200.
Either hustle harder and get that 200k+ combined income or don’t have kids. I agree with others, it’s a lifestyle choice and yes Kids are expensive. My son turns 4 next week and I’m still on the fence if it was a good choice to have kids in the first place.
This thread should probably get merged with the one linked by @rolandinho above. For what its worth, my two cents as parent of a ‘tween’:
The first 5-6 years are significantly driven by what you / your friends & family / society thinks is normal, and to a lesser degree by the actual needs of the child. I’m not sure it is normal primate behaviour to stick a newborn into a separate cave and close the door each night. In our case we all slept in the same room for the first six years (and the bed room was just for sleeping, not some party place). We also didn’t buy those cute shoes before the child could even walk, and we didn’t need the premium pram/stroller to go jogging with and instead got a second hand for 30 quid.
The next 5-6 years are a transition towards the child wanting the same or more of what its peers are having. We managed to keep that somewhat under control without major traumas, but your mileage may vary. It probably also matters if you live in a glitzy neighbourhood or if your neighbourhood is more down to earth. The issues @Patron raised do start to matter, but with a bit of parenting and probably a bit of luck too this can be managed at this age. Towards the end of this phase it is also a good time to place the seeds for good financial sense and instilling a healthy amount of distaste towards the show-offs on the Pausenplatz. But a balance between frugal lifestyle and not leaving a sense of poverty must be struck.
As for the transition to the teenage years, that is where we are at now and I expect to be more in line with @Patron’s description. Social recognition and integration into the peer groups will be increasingly more important, and that inevitably will come with expenditures. We accept that, on the other hand I don’t see why there shouldn’t be some summer jobs to help fund the mobile phone plan etc. Also a good time to talk about budgets, waiting a few days before deciding on a major purchase, not spending more than you have…
As for the time after, 60% of parents seem to think that their child will be within the 20% doing the gymnasium + university route. I see this especially often with expats that either don’t have an appreciation for the Swiss apprenticeship system, or they expect to leave Switzerland and want something that is recognized in their home country. If this is the future for your child you will probably be glad to fund that at this point in time. Otherwise costs will slowly drop after the age of 16; and at the other end you hopefully have a functional independent young adult, you will be FI or close to it, and get to decide if you want to postpone RE by a single year and help to (partially) subsidize a bachelor degree.
Overall, compared to our experience the OP’s chart has the initial years too high, but towards the end the gap reduces. If you don’t need to be trendy parent in the posh neighbourhood it will be easier. Find ways to every now and then splurge money on something that matters to you as family, instead of trying to keep up with the neighbours. Actively make fun of your kids peers that spend a ton on useless stuff.
I have 5 children, and by my own cost estimates, average total costs per child up to the age 18 (at which point they should be more or less self-sufficient, in my opinion) will be CHF 100,000, or CHF 5555 per annum. That means 100K per child above what I would have spent without that child. Accounting for the opportunity cost at 3% annual return, the total cost is CHF 133,969 per child (CHF 669,845 in total). So kids are relatively expensive, but I don’t buy into some of these hyper-inflated estimates. Of course, in Switzerland as in any other country, the sky really is the limit when it comes to spending, so it’s a question of lifestyle. In my case, the experiences and fulfillment it brings me is well worth the cost, but it definitely isn’t for everyone.
I would be very interested to see your expenses for children, if you don’t mind. Are these gross, without counting in family support and tax deductions?
No external child care I guess? Do you live in the countryside? What about vacations?
I think it is important to remember the following are very different:
" I want something but my parents could never afford to buy it for me, we are poor"
versus
"my parents have the money and could buy it for me, but they refuse "
I see parents feeling pressure as a result of being in the first case and as a result buying “stuff” to try and keep up like: CHF 200 Nike sneakers, iMAC, iphone , ipad, huge TV, etc
I’ll try and publish my tables here sometime. The costs are the difference between my estimated costs as a childless adult (which are relatively frugal as I’m that kind of person) and my costs as a parent. So child benefits, health insurance reductions, tax deductions, education benefits, and any other benefits which I only get because of the children come on top. This makes a significant difference because my taxable income is very low compared to a single person with the same income, and low taxable income means you can access a lot of benefits. I live in the city (Zurich), never used external childcare. We take regular vacations within Europe and travel further affield (Africa, Asia, etc.) around every two years, but mostly stay with friends/family, Airbnb, or other affordable options. Will do the luxury resort thing after FIREing 
