Forum Index
»
Off-Topic
Affording Private School Tuition
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Given that the better private schools in the region have tuitions of 28k-30k on average, assuming no debt and average housing obligations, how much of a gross household income do you think is appropriate to make it affordable (e.g. not easy, but financially practical) to send 1-2 children to private school? |
Anonymous
|
200k for one if you don't have consumer debt and a modest mortgage; at least 250K or two.
But I consider it to be financially practical only when you are also able to save for retirement. |
Anonymous
| We send our two kids to parachial school at a modest (by DC standards!!!!) $10K each (all in, tuition, bookes, uniforms etc). Our combined income is $150K, we have no debt except a mortgage and we can make the $20K that we are spending on school work, but it is tight, and although we are able to save, it is not nearly as much as we'd like. |
Anonymous
|
there is no such thing as "average housing obligations" in this discussion, as that is the biggest monthly expense for most people and makes a big impact on how much disposable income you have. You either have the extra money every month or you don't. Add in another $2k for activities, etc, and some more for after care (if both parents are working), then divide by 9. And remember that summer camps are pretty expensive, too.
A year of tuition (spread across 12 months, b/c that is the payment plan, even though you still have additional expenses in the summer) is pretty equivalent to monthly payments on a $400k mortgage. So take your monthly net (gross minus taxes, 401k, etc, etc), subtract out the mandatory expenses (mortgage, insurance, utilities, groceries, car, etc), and you are left with discretionary. Reserve some of that for living life (clothes, entertainment), emergency savings. Do you have enough left for tuition? If you don't and private school is important to you, look into downsizing the house. Look into financial aid. |
Anonymous
|
We have a HHI of slightly higher than $300k. Our mortgage is about $4,600/month. We have no other debt. There is no way we could afford to send our two kids to private at a combined cost of $60,000/year without seriously cutting into our retirement and college savings and cutting back our lifestyle. I'd cut back my lifestyle to sacrifice for private school, but not savings.
We could do parochial school at $10,000/year each, but honestly, as a graduate of parochial schools, I think the education at good public schools is better. |
Anonymous
| For two kids? I'd say $300K. That's practical - not a no big deal situation, but not a situation where you're eating PB&J for lunch every day to pay the kids' tuition and have given up your second car to take the bus to work. It is a HUGE chunk of money. I really think unless your HHI is over $1 million or so, you definitely miss the money and it will affect something - vacation choices, housing choices, car choices, clothing choices, savings levels, childcare expenses, etc. How much you are affected by it depends on how far below the $1 million mark you are (and we are not over that HHI ourselves, so I am speculating about when things would feel less snug (although they aren't super tight) for us). |
Anonymous
| We pay $50,000 a year for schooling 4 kids, and make about $220,000 a year. Obviously not the "Big 3" types of schools everyone thinks of, but we are happy. |
Anonymous
| We are sending one DC to private school for special needs reasons and are considering a second for the same reason. We are freaked out right now. I do know that we are working with the private school for financial aid. We are going to receive it for the first DC next year and they have indicated that it will be applicable to the second. However, we are still talking about $38k for the two still. Our HHI is about $190k right now. We have a low mortgage and no consumer debt. Our plan had been to send our children to public school and moved to a good school district to do so. We are hoping that we can get our children back into the public school system in 3rd grade. We cannot maintain this for the long term. |
Anonymous
|
Two kids will cost you $780k to get them from K-12 in a $30k private.
Determine if that's worth it to you. We have coMbined income of over $400k and determined with the high caliber of close in publics that it was not for us. $60k savings a year is a serious better lifestyle. |
Anonymous
| For those of you sending your kids to these private schools, are you still able to put away a decent amount of income in your retirement funds, as well as putting money aside for possible future college education tuition for your kids? |
Anonymous
| we have a $225K single income (no debt but mortgage) and live in DC and an easily afford $18K in preschool tuition (2 kids). I think we could definitely make 2 $30K tuitions work on $300k (and we'd still be able to save, pay our mortgage, and live a very comfortable "wanting for nothing" life.) |
Anonymous
|
PP here again--
however---if we had that $300K income would we spend it in tuition? No, we're very happy with our DC public school. |
Anonymous
|
This is such an interesting thread because I'm so curious about the financials of those at privates and at my JKLM school, though I would never ask anyone!
That's interesting that some of the pp's with the highest HHI are at public. We're at JKLM school, $400K+ (single income), have rental prop income, and $2700/mo mortgage. |
Anonymous
This does not answer the question at all. It is just you bragging. |
Anonymous
Sorry! It wasn't my intention to brag; I mean I'm interested because I'm always curious about how people spend their money. I feel like I'm a huge saver (not always healthy), and because I don't talk about it, I like anonymous forums. Forgive me for not giving a definitive answer to the question; it seems like it's any number you can make it work for your family without stressing about it. |