Starting at what HHI or net worth would you feel comfortable paying $32k private school tuition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. To the PPs who do shell out that kind of money, do you think that it is worth it?

For 32k? Every penny. When I make the mistake of compounding yearly since 2008 according to historical S&P returns— well, let’s just say I try not to do that too often >_<

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We don't live in the DC area anymore, unfortunately. In our new city public schools are not good. Nobody sends their kids to public schools.

Nobody? Really? Who counts as a person, in your world view?

[Anonymous]

I understand paying top dollars in a SN situation, but I would hesitate to do that if the kid could not feel like the others because his family cannot afford most things that the rest of the peers can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We don't live in the DC area anymore, unfortunately. In our new city public schools are not good. Nobody sends their kids to public schools.

Nobody? Really? Who counts as a person, in your world view?

Probably not brown people. Or maybe OP is in a city full of robots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you live over your means. We make $150K or so and we could comfortably do it. You can very easily do it but may need to reconsider your housing options.

OP here. I don't think that you can afford $32k private school on a $150k gross HHI.

I don't want to have to commute one hour to get to the private school, which is close to my office. So for this reason we would like to live closer by, hence the more expensive house.

I KNOW we can as we've done it for a few years as we have a child with SN and who needed therapies. You don't need to move closer or get a more expensive house, you choose to want it. Need vs. want. We live in a very small, cheapest house in the neighborhood at the time we could find and have aggressively paid the mortgage so in a few years it will be paid off. So, in two years it will be paid off (but we could do it now) and we drive older car/paid off car. Its how you spend/manage your money. Your priority is a house and mortgage so no you cannot but you could if you wanted to.

Then you are saving at a lower rate. You have to cut somewhere to spend that high a percentage of your pretax income on private. Lots of families do this but many do not make that choice.

[Anonymous]

We make 165k, pay $24k tuition and are fine. $2300 mortgage PITI. If it’s a priority for you, you’ll be fine, if it’s not a priority, you’ll resent it.

[Anonymous]

Same income, $4k mortgage, we could pay it now.
How do I know? I’ve been paying that much or more for daycare / preschool / 1st grade pod for 7 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We don't live in the DC area anymore, unfortunately. In our new city public schools are not good. Nobody sends their kids to public schools.

Nobody? Really? Who counts as a person, in your world view?

I get why people reacted badly to this, but I live in Baltimore and I get it. Nobody who has an option here sends their kids to public school. If if they do, it’s because they live in one of the very very few decent school districts, where the housing is expensive anyway.

[Anonymous]

I think most people who send their kids to private either come from family money, live in an area with poor public schools, has a child with special needs or social needs or extremely high income.

We have a high income (seven figures), high net worth and can afford private school tuition but our kids are thriving in public. DH and I both went to public school and top colleges and grad schools. We prefer to pay for our kids’ college and grad school, wedding and future down payments. If kids struggled in school and were not getting what they needed, we absolutely would send our kids to private.

[Anonymous]

I would do this on our gross HHI ~$240K or a little less, but our PITI is $2,500.

[Anonymous]

Pp again. I would not pay for private at 300k HHI. Your savings are not that high. I would rather save that money and have the ability to full pay college, which can be 300k nowadays.

[Anonymous]

I pay 32k for 2 kids in daycare/preschool and we make 220k, so I think you can do it if you really want it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most people who send their kids to private either come from family money, live in an area with poor public schools, has a child with special needs or social needs or extremely high income.

We have a high income (seven figures), high net worth and can afford private school tuition but our kids are thriving in public. DH and I both went to public school and top colleges and grad schools. We prefer to pay for our kids’ college and grad school, wedding and future down payments. If kids struggled in school and were not getting what they needed, we absolutely would send our kids to private.

You have an extremely high income.

[Anonymous]

My parents paid about that total for 3 kids (10k each) in private school when we were growing up. Their total income was 150k. They just made it work.

Based on our savings goals, and so far public school has served us well, I would say that we would need to increase our income by double the 32k amount after tax to feel comfortable with that tuition level. So 350k or so HHI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents paid about that total for 3 kids (10k each) in private school when we were growing up. Their total income was 150k. They just made it work.

Based on our savings goals, and so far public school has served us well, I would say that we would need to increase our income by double the 32k amount after tax to feel comfortable with that tuition level. So 350k or so HHI.

So did my parents. They drive 15 year old beat up cars, no vacations, no dinners out. It didn’t bother them, but I didn’t like it.