It Costs $226,920 To Raise A Child -- And That Doesn't Include College

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The astronomical price of day care -- which costs more than the median annual rent payments in all 50 states -- is a major reason why raising a child to 18-years-old now costs $226,290, CNN Money reports.

Compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these numbers reveal a 40% increase from ten years ago, or about $60,000. Rising food and transportation prices also play a major role; those numbers now sit at $36,210 and $30,900, respectively.

And because the DOA considered the cost only to 18, that $226,290 doesn't include college, which often merits the lion's share of financial planning and discussion when it comes to raising children.

The cost of child care, though, jumps out from the other numbers. CNN Money spoke to a woman who spends about 30% of her $39,000 annual income on day care for two children. That's $5,850 per child per year, or $487 a month.

To confront these costs, there is the obvious recourse -- try to save -- but planning might take a back seat to the immediacy of some needs. CNN Money spoke to one financial adviser who said that, if you have to choose between college and day care for your child, choose day care.

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Could Facebook's Music Service Include Concert Ticketing?

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Facebook is widely expected to be announcing a music service next week in partnership with Spotify, Rdio, and perhaps some other music services like MOG.

One interesting possibility that hasn't been mentioned: Facebook might integrate concert ticket buying into the service.

Some interesting datapoints:

Facebook is reportedly planning an HTML5-based mobile app platform with integrated payments. Users would be able to buy goods from within Facebook apps on any mobile phone with a modern Web browser.

But what about smaller acts playing bars or clubs that don't use Ticketmaster? You know -- all those bands who used to love MySpace before it collapsed.

Enter a startup called MogoTix, which Facebook is using to handle ticketing for its f8 conference next week. This is a switch -- in previous years, it's used Eventbrite (which also handles ticketing for a lot of other tech events in Silicon Valley).

When I asked MogoTix CEO Scott Thorpe how he got the deal, he simply said that Facebook was "very interested" in their technology, which lets buyers and sellers use their mobile phones to handle all ticketing -- customers get tickets sent to their phones as little electronic codes, and ticket takers at the venue can scan those codes using THEIR phones. No paper, no dedicated readers.

Thorpe also said he'd be very happy if smaller bands used MogoTix to sell tickets and book tours directly -- without the participation of the venues.

Could Facebook be helping push the company in this direction? He wouldn't comment.

So this is just speculation at this point, but social ticket buying would give users another reason to use a Facebook music service, rather than just sticking with the individual listening-only services (like Spotify) that will be part of it.

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