Cost is likely one factor you’re taking into account as you decide to freeze your eggs.

One way to think about egg freezing is that you’re budgeting for a baby—a future baby. We’ve taken a deep dive into the cost of having a child, income for moms, and egg freezing costs and IVF treatment costs to help you understand how egg freezing now can affect your financial future.

1. The cost of having a child is about $15,000 a year.

The average cost of raising a child born in 2015 is about $15,000 a year, including housing, food and child care/education. Keep this in mind as you’re budgeting for a baby: that baby’s going to get older, and $15,000 a year does not take inflation into account or include the cost of a college education.

And baby budgets in New York City need to be even higher: one 2014 report estimates that it could cost middle-class parents an average of $30,000+ per year to raise a child in Manhattan. The higher a family’s income, the more they’ll spend on their kids, and living in the northeastern United States will cost you more—it’s the most expensive location in the country to raise a child.

2. Women who have kids later earn more, overall.

Budgeting for a baby doesn’t just include what it costs to raise a child—it also must take into account the fact that women, specifically, make less money after they’ve had a child. It’s called the “motherhood pay gap.” While full-time working women 25 to 34 earn 92% of what men earn, women 35 to 44 earn 78% of what men earn, and when they have a child, the gap widens. Married moms earn 76% of what men earn.

(In case you’re wondering: the guys are doing just fine, of course. Men who are married with children actually earn more than men without families.)

But delaying motherhood might be one way to gain back some financial power. US Census results demonstrate that women who waited just five years to have a child, at 35 instead of 30, made about $16,000 more per year. And women ages 40 to 45 with professional degrees and full-time jobs who had their first child at 35 made $50,000 per year more than women who had their first child at 20. That increased financial power could make budgeting for a baby—when the time comes—just a little bit easier.

Learn more about the benefits of having children later in life.

3. Freezing your eggs before age 35 and using them to get pregnant later can actually save you money.

Here’s a fancy bit of baby budgeting: for women who don’t have children until they’re 40, it’s actually both less expensive and more effective to use eggs frozen earlier than to do in vitro fertilization at age 40.

Here’s how it breaks down. The average cost to freeze your eggs before age 35 and use them when you’re 40 is $39,946; using previously frozen eggs gives women a 62% chance of success. On the other hand, the majority of women—84%—who want to get pregnant at age 40 without previously frozen eggs will need to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. The average cost of two IVF cycles at age 40? $55,060, with a success rate of just 42%.

Learn more about how egg freezing can actually save you money.

That means if you freeze your eggs before you’re 35 and use them when you’re 40, you could be saving $15,000—and giving yourself a much greater chance of motherhood. This could really change things if you’re thinking about budgeting for a baby later in life.

4. Egg freezing costs are much lower at Extend Fertility.

How much do you need to budget for a baby if you’re freezing your eggs with us? Egg freezing at Extend Fertility costs under $5,000—that’s less than half the national average of $11,000.

Learn more about how Extend Fertility’s egg freezing price stacks up to national averages.

The bottom line: if planning your future involves budgeting for a baby later in life, freezing your eggs now might be the smartest financial decision you can make.

Ready to learn more? Contact us.