How do people afford it?
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Anonymous
| I’m a fed, DH works at a non-profit. We make 310 combined. 750k mortgage. No other debt. We want to send our two kids private, but at $40-50k a year per kid it doesn’t seem possible. Is there anyone in our situation that actually found a way to make this work? |
Anonymous
| Nope, it's super hard, sorry op. If you are a minority, you may be able to get fa. Otherwise, if you have more than one kid in private it will be hard. |
Anonymous
| No. I was in non-profit and DH was in private sector and kids were in public, we switched to public when I went to private sector as well and quickly made partner and tripled my salary. It is impossible otherwise and it makes me sick how much we pay. |
Anonymous
| You can comfortably do it but you mortgage and other expenses are too high. You make plenty. |
Anonymous
| I forgot to mention that we have about 700-800k in equity in our house. Is there a way to tap into that to swing it? |
Anonymous
| Your mortgage is too high with your income for you to afford private. You would need to sell and live in a cheaper apartment, get second jobs, and/ or take in renters. Private is a privilege, not a right. |
Anonymous
| Similar stats to you, but we have one kid and we get financial aid. Money is tight and DH thinks we should pull the kid back to public. |
Anonymous
How is money tight on that income? That's appalling you get financial aid making over $300K. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| Very frankly we make more than twice the HHI you do and have half the mortgage. I don’t say it to brag. It’s just that I agree it would be tough in your financial situation. A shocking number of families are really relying on grandparents to make it work. |
Anonymous
| No |
Anonymous
|
You have too much equity in your home to qualify for FA. You would need to downsize to a less expensive home and you would be expected to use that money to pay for tuition. Your choices are grandparents, less expensive parish schools, or schools outside of the DC area, in addition to your local public school
To address the question in your subject, there are many people who makes lots and lots of money in this city. I didn't even realize how much wealth was here until we started down the private school road. We have a similar HHI to you, similar equity in our home, but a much smaller mortgage. We live in a small unrenovated colonial in Bethesda and send our kids to a local private. We are full pay and our planning on switching to public for high school since we reckon that will cost $100,000 per year by the time our first grader is of age. |
Anonymous
NP. Unfortunately we are the same, and in an area with lower tuition. Our school is riddled with grandparents with strong opinions and criticism. Which was strange to me until I realize they are paying tuition, making donations AND making donations in their adult children’s names. So in my experience, larger salary, smaller house or mortgage, and really rich parents is the answer. PS you will almost never encounter other parents who are upfront about who is paying their kids’ tuition. I sit quietly with a friendly expression on my face at our schools annual grandparents’ day and those grandparents tell me everything! |
Anonymous
How much aid do you get? Aid would definitely help. |
Anonymous
I don’t know how. Our mortgage would have to be zero. And we’d still need to pay property taxes and insurance right? |