How do you afford private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To those that send kids to private, why did you choose to do so? Is the education actually better (not fancier, but better)? How are your local public schools?

We wrestled with this and chose to buy in an excellent public district because we thought there would be less privilege and entitlement (not sure it actually worked out that way). Now we have a SN child so may end up in private anyway.

Our DC was unhappy in public and hated school. Scores off the charts on standardized tests but underperforming academically. Did not get into HGC so after watching him go steadily downhill we finally put him in private and now he LOVES school. The individual attention, small class sizes and relationship with teachers plus mandatory sports and daily outside recess with lots of breaks is a more humane approach to education.

More humane? Please, let's not build private schools into Mother Theresa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI is $160, 1 kid in private. We afford it by with a $1,300/mo mortgage (little house in PG county), old cars, and frugality in general. We have become budget whizes. We do it, basically, because our kid's education, and how he spends his days for the first 18 years of his life are our priority. Public school would have been our first choice, but our local school fails to teach almost half its students to read on grade level, so it wasn't going to happen. My own hobby is gardening, and so I wanted a SFH with at least a little yard. After running the math, we find that a SFH in a fantastic school district will cost us the same or more, on a monthly basis, as the fantastic school my kid now attends. If housing or even being well-to-do were among our top 3 family priorities we'd probably move, but neither are...so private it is!

Could you do it with 2 kids?

[Anonymous]

Family money. We have more than we'll ever need, think private schools are worth the expense and better than blowing the money on Maseratis and conspicuous consumption.

[Anonymous]

We pay full tuition for two on half that salary. We sacrifice vacations and a large home to do so. I get annoyed when I see people living in million dollar homes applying for financial aid. It doesn't send a good message to people like us that would love a nicer home but pay full tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private has a big effect on your long term net worth. I would think twice if not already wealthy.

Agree. Has a huge impact on your life and is an unnecessary expense in most cases. It is a luxury.

this is true only if you don't spend it in other ways. it's rare that all tuition dollars would go directly to savings.

[Anonymous]

This is the PP with HHI of $160 with a little house in PG and one kid. PP asked if we could do it with 2 kids. Probably, because the school DC goes to would probably give us FA at that point to make it feasible. Not comfortable, not easy, but feasible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private has a big effect on your long term net worth. I would think twice if not already wealthy.

Agree. Has a huge impact on your life and is an unnecessary expense in most cases. It is a luxury.

this is true only if you don't spend it in other ways. it's rare that all tuition dollars would go directly to savings.

Exactly and for some families, they don't count it as a luxury. It is a priority. And personally I think it is a much better priority than new cars, a big home, designer bags, a closet full of shoes, $500 a month at a hair salon, eating out at restaurants 3 times a week etc....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the PP with HHI of $160 with a little house in PG and one kid. PP asked if we could do it with 2 kids. Probably, because the school DC goes to would probably give us FA at that point to make it feasible. Not comfortable, not easy, but feasible.

Curious, did you apply for FA for the first one.

[Anonymous]

Like a PP, our research determined that with 1 kid our costs would be roughly the same between buying a SFH in a good school district and living in the close-in city and paying for private. The difference is that the SFH would come with about twice the commute time for us, and that's time we'd rather be spending with our LO. Of course, now we have 2 kids, so private is an additional $30K/year, but we make it work, largely b/c we really value that extra time with them.

Our incomes fluctuate, so we save a TON when we can and pull from it when we need to -- we're not extravagant people but we have everything we need to feel fulfilled. Well, maybe not that trip to Fiji, which we wouldn't spend the money on, but we do have the knowledge that our kids are having a wonderful school experience.

Oh, and we won't be paying 100% for college. We could, but we believe the kids should chip in some.

[Anonymous]

On this board is HHI pre or post taxes? There is no way a family is paying $40K a year for private with a pre-tax salary of $100,000. Once you pay taxes, that does not leave you with much of anything to pay for 3+ people to live. Something just doesn't add up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HHI is $160, 1 kid in private. We afford it by with a $1,300/mo mortgage (little house in PG county), old cars, and frugality in general. We have become budget whizes. We do it, basically, because our kid's education, and how he spends his days for the first 18 years of his life are our priority. Public school would have been our first choice, but our local school fails to teach almost half its students to read on grade level, so it wasn't going to happen. My own hobby is gardening, and so I wanted a SFH with at least a little yard. After running the math, we find that a SFH in a fantastic school district will cost us the same or more, on a monthly basis, as the fantastic school my kid now attends. If housing or even being well-to-do were among our top 3 family priorities we'd probably move, but neither are...so private it is!

Yes! You could be us -- Although we make less, and receive some FA. I have also crunched the numbers about moving to a better school district, and we'd be paying more for less flexibility, less space, less convenience, and what would still be a worse school than our private.

Everyone makes their own choices, and this is one we're happy about. It may not be financially shrewd, but we're investing where we want to invest -- in our kid's education.

[Anonymous]

We make about $210 pre tax, have two kids and lots of medical bills. Likelihood of getting ANY aid? We could carry most of it but the top school choice happens to be the most expensive, at least $5k more a year than most privates here, because its specialized. We have one old car, and live in a nice SFH, that's completely undecorated or updated, only because we bought fifteen years ago but still have a healthy mortgage. We are willing to make significant cuts in lifestyle to afford this, but are we going to be expected to completely deplete the savings we have to do it (not huge) or are aid calculations based mainly on HHI. Just like 15-20% aid would make it doable for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On this board is HHI pre or post taxes? There is no way a family is paying $40K a year for private with a pre-tax salary of $100,000. Once you pay taxes, that does not leave you with much of anything to pay for 3+ people to live. Something just doesn't add up!

Where is anyone saying that they pay 40K on 100K pre-tax?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

my DH and i have been discussing this issue at great length, which is why i posted. we have no debt. we save a lot, my personal opinion is that people who go private just don't save as much as we do. i don't know what is "better" - investing in your kids via a private education or passing on an amazing inheritance, but i know that the "what ifs"keep DH up at night.

we had a brief health scare that put him out of work for 9 weeks and that was very sobering.

OP, my family makes a similar income to yours (maybe more like $425, but not the $600-700+ some posters are mentioning). Where we are private is about $25k/kid/year so it's doable but sure, we'd save a lot more.

I don't think the inheritance is worth much at all. Inheritance will come late in life for them hopefully, but if you believe a private school education would make a real difference in how they achieve their goals earlier, I think most people would choose that. My parents sent me to private / very good public and their investment means I now support myself. This is how I think about spending for my children - what spending would allow them to live the amount they want. I think that's the right way.

In terms of the what ifs I agree, but if the question is private school vs inheritance, the answer is a total no brainer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These financials don't seem to be written by anyone who actually knows anything about their own personal finances.

No one earning $250K with $2.5M in savings should be bothered much my paying for private school or college. First of all, the savings should be producing investment returns equal to to their work income. Live on (and save from) the salary and only tap the investment return for your children's education. So last year, the S&P 500 was up 30%. On a $2M portfolio, that was a $600K return. This year, it is up $15%. If you siphon off the earnings from just the past two years, you have enough to fill the DCs' trust funds with nearly $1M, more than enough to throw off all of DC's education needs in perpetuity and buy them very nice houses when they turns 25. No sacrifice in lifestyle and an insignificant difference in your overall financial picture.

I guess. But those who have been burned by the stock market, and have $2.4M that they have carefully saved are not always included to gamble in the stock market like that.