Follow up post on missionary service

Not too long ago there was a letter from the First Presidency of the Church sent to all the wards/branches that was to be read to the congregation. The topic of the letter was to encourage all the members of the church to donate generously to the general missionary fund. This was due in part to the huge increase of missionaries that are now serving and are projected to serve in the future due to the recent change in the age in which young men and young women may begin their service.

Being a numbers type of guy, I started doing some math. (This was also because my oldest son recently started his first job and has begun saving for his mission). And here's what I came up with:

Assumptions:

The estimated cost of serving a missionary is currently around $12,000 for young men ($9,000 for young women). This is based on mission expenses of $500/month.

A young man will begin working the day he turns 16 and will leave for his mission the day he turns 18. (2 full years)

Minimum wage is $7.35/hr (this is currently what it is in Missouri-this will vary by location)

He will work an average of 20 hours/week.

After taxes, tithing, and miscellaneous expenses, he will save 60% of his gross pay for his mission.

Conclusions:

He will make $147/week gross
He will make $88.20/week net (60% of his gross pay)
He will make $4,586.40/year net
He will make $9,172.80 in the two years he has to save for a mission
He will be short $2,827.20 in order to fully fund his mission.

So let's assume that he will be able to save 80% of his gross pay for his mission.

He will make $147/week gross
He will make $117.60/week net (80% of his gross pay)
He will make $6,115,20/year net
He will make $12,230.40 in the two years he has to save for a mission
He will make $230.40 cents over his estimated needs for a mission.

My guess is that in reality a young man will come somewhere in between these two scenarios, but as you can see it will be very difficult for a lot of our young men to earn enough to fully fund their own missions, especially in areas of the country/world that are not economically strong. And the same applies to a lot of the young women as well, although they have an extra year before they will leave and will only serve for a maximum of 18 months, so there is a little more flexibility, but not much.

Just something to think about.