How much do you earn to afford private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We send 2 kids to private school on $240k in income. We have the cheapest house in our zip code, have no debt outside our mortgage, and vacation by staying with family or camping in national parks. The hard part is not being able to afford all of the extras that our kids' private school peers have. Our kids don't get the extra lacrosse coaching, the fancy electronics, nicer brand clothes, regular restaurant meals, etc. We have a very good quality of life but live much more simply than our private school peers. It can be done!

This ^^
We realize we don't need much to live comfortable, we are a happy family and we value education more than the "extras". Education is our investment.

Is it a good one? Which would help a kid more in the long run, a private school diploma or 12 years worth of private school tuition that had been growing in a brokerage account?

Who the heck wants to outright give their kid that much money? It will kill their work ethic. No thank you.

Trusts are a thing

[Anonymous]

We are sending our kids to a Catholic private school b/c FCPS let us down.

But don't judge us buy our HHI. We only made it work b/c a relative gave us part of what would be my inheritance.
"Better to use my money now when you need than to wait until I croak in 10 years which, by then, won't be nearly as helpful".
-Grandma

[Anonymous]

We paid two Catholic school K - 8 tuitions, on an income a little under $200K. When our income fell to about $130K, our school gave us generous aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We send 2 kids to private school on $240k in income. We have the cheapest house in our zip code, have no debt outside our mortgage, and vacation by staying with family or camping in national parks. The hard part is not being able to afford all of the extras that our kids' private school peers have. Our kids don't get the extra lacrosse coaching, the fancy electronics, nicer brand clothes, regular restaurant meals, etc. We have a very good quality of life but live much more simply than our private school peers. It can be done!

Do you kids feel the peer pressure?

[Anonymous]

HHI $290K, sending 1 kid to private school this year (2nd grade) and making cuts to give our child a better opportunity for a small class and in-person instruction. ($28k tuition). If he loves the school, I'm willing to make sacrifices to keep him there. We have a smaller house and no car loans or other debt so its doable for us, but will mean no big vacations and less in savings.

[Anonymous]

Our kids went to private from Gr 1 and all through High school. When we started, our combined HHI was $250k. Tuition was around $20k each. At end of high school, our income had jumped to $800k and their tuition was $45k each. We have twins. College is now $70k each....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’d be surprised how many parents make relatively small incomes here but grandparents pay for private.

When I moved to DC I worked at a nonprofit where several people at the non manager or lower levels (e.g., not execs or people on the 990s) had kids in private schools and a spouse with a similar job. In every case, the grandparents were involved in paying for the tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids went to private from Gr 1 and all through High school. When we started, our combined HHI was $250k. Tuition was around $20k each. At end of high school, our income had jumped to $800k and their tuition was $45k each. We have twins. College is now $70k each....

Presumably private college?

[Anonymous]

Year one, HHI was $500k for one kid. Number of kids has gone up but so has income.

And even we have made sacrifices to afford it (modest house and cars).

[Anonymous]

We are currently at around $275 HHI and are considering private Catholic school.

I go back and forth as to whether or not we can afford it!

[Anonymous]

We make around $360K and send 4 kids to Catholic school. Total tuition is $21K (we’re Catholic) and we feel it’s affordable for us. We’re not big spenders in other ways and we’re still saving for college and retirement but I would say the tuition has the most effect on our vacation budget. Not that it matters this year but it seems like most other families we know travel much more than we do, so it feels like that’s where the trade off is. We’ll stick with Catholic through 8th grade and then most likely switch to FCPS for high school.

[Anonymous]

What do you spend the 260k on? We make less and do private.

I assume you take overseas vacations and have an expensive mortgage and a car loan?

To afford it, we cut back spending.

[Anonymous]

My kid goes to a Catholic HS. The tuition is around $17K per year and I get $6500 in FA and a scholarship. I make $75K per year as a public school teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you spend the 260k on? We make less and do private.

I assume you take overseas vacations and have an expensive mortgage and a car loan?

To afford it, we cut back spending.

We do travel, but the mortgage on our 5 bedroom colonial is just under $2k. We have one modest car payment ($300). No other debt. We have 3 kids.

We aren’t big shoppers. We are saving for retirement and college.

Re: travel - it’s not like we spend the equivalent of private school tuition for 3 kids.

From the thread, it appears some people only have 1 or 2 in private, they earn more, or grandparents are helping out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a Catholic HS. The tuition is around $17K per year and I get $6500 in FA and a scholarship. I make $75K per year as a public school teacher.

That’s a great deal!

My alma mater is closer to $28k and I doubt our $260k income would qualify for FA.

We switched preschools many years ago when the private school jacked up tuition. We didn’t qualify for FA and our HHI was only $150 at that time.