How do you afford private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. HHI almost $500k, dual-income, both senior individual contributors in the tech industry. Generally worked 80+ hours a week since we were 22 years old, careful to have no debt other than our mortgage.

DH's dad was a jobless alcoholic, mom was a cafeteria worker. My grandpa was a third-world miner with a grade-school education, but all his kids grew up to get graduate degrees, so I grew up comfortably middle-class. But we're getting zero family help and expect to someday support our parents.

$40k/year in private-school tuition is built on the back of years of working our *sses off and likely needing to work into our 70s. Nice house, fairly cheap cars (paid off), lots of books, a yearly purchase of modest artwork, nice meals out, the occasional trip to the symphony/theatre (pre-pandemic), no vacations other than the annual Christmas family get-together (we stay with relatives, not in a hotel). Financial stability and we don't feel stretched, but we only had one kid for a reason. The time and effort we put into our jobs plus parenting doesn't leave room for much in the way of entertainment time anyway. It's certainly not the life we might have envisioned had you told us a few decades back that we would have this kind of HHI.

what do you do with the rest of your money? We have one kid in private ($45K), $400K income and easily spend $20K a year in travel plus about $10K a year in kids' activities (3 kids total).

If you're paying $40K on $500K then it means you have essentially lose $100K off your income ($40K plus the income tax on that) so let's round down and say you're making $400k.

$400K and you can't afford vacations or nice cars?

[Anonymous]

We have 3 in private.

Salaries come to about 1.1- 1.4 and then have between 300-600 in stock comp per year that vests on varying schedules. The total has accumulated into a significant amount of shares. Do not cash out the stock (but might sell it to buy other stock for diversification purposes) but use the dividend proceeds to pay dues and entertainment expenses (members of a city club, a country club and two golf only clubs that allow “regional” memberships.).

No help from family with any expenses, including school but family homes in Maine and Montana are used for vacations or jump off points. Those homes were bought after we were adults so there was no help with college or grad school expenses either. Still, we have been very lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have 3 in private.

Salaries come to about 1.1- 1.4 and then have between 300-600 in stock comp per year that vests on varying schedules. The total has accumulated into a significant amount of shares. Do not cash out the stock (but might sell it to buy other stock for diversification purposes) but use the dividend proceeds to pay dues and entertainment expenses (members of a city club, a country club and two golf only clubs that allow “regional” memberships.).

No help from family with any expenses, including school but family homes in Maine and Montana are used for vacations or jump off points. Those homes were bought after we were adults so there was no help with college or grad school expenses either. Still, we have been very lucky.

Why would you need help from family at that income level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 3 in private.

Salaries come to about 1.1- 1.4 and then have between 300-600 in stock comp per year that vests on varying schedules. The total has accumulated into a significant amount of shares. Do not cash out the stock (but might sell it to buy other stock for diversification purposes) but use the dividend proceeds to pay dues and entertainment expenses (members of a city club, a country club and two golf only clubs that allow “regional” memberships.).

No help from family with any expenses, including school but family homes in Maine and Montana are used for vacations or jump off points. Those homes were bought after we were adults so there was no help with college or grad school expenses either. Still, we have been very lucky.

Why would you need help from family at that income level.

Right?? The "still" is cracking me up. Some people are living on an entirely different planet.

[Anonymous]

We pay for it from savings, or stocks, or annual income.
After four years of a Big 3, we’re not happy with the education so will pick a different route that private schools around here. Not worth it, might even be worse for our children, in many regards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 3 in private.

Salaries come to about 1.1- 1.4 and then have between 300-600 in stock comp per year that vests on varying schedules. The total has accumulated into a significant amount of shares. Do not cash out the stock (but might sell it to buy other stock for diversification purposes) but use the dividend proceeds to pay dues and entertainment expenses (members of a city club, a country club and two golf only clubs that allow “regional” memberships.).

No help from family with any expenses, including school but family homes in Maine and Montana are used for vacations or jump off points. Those homes were bought after we were adults so there was no help with college or grad school expenses either. Still, we have been very lucky.

Why would you need help from family at that income level.

We don’t need it.

[Anonymous]

NP here. We have four kids - 1 in college, 3 in $40+ per year privates. My husband has to make $800 a year to support us at current burn rate. But we starting saving for college fifteen years ago and have 75% of that saved. Needless to say, not a lot of retirement saving going on. But we have private equity investments that will hopefully work out well. We don't do many other "fancy" things, but we do take vacations and send the kids to sleep away camp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. HHI almost $500k, dual-income, both senior individual contributors in the tech industry. Generally worked 80+ hours a week since we were 22 years old, careful to have no debt other than our mortgage.

DH's dad was a jobless alcoholic, mom was a cafeteria worker. My grandpa was a third-world miner with a grade-school education, but all his kids grew up to get graduate degrees, so I grew up comfortably middle-class. But we're getting zero family help and expect to someday support our parents.

$40k/year in private-school tuition is built on the back of years of working our *sses off and likely needing to work into our 70s. Nice house, fairly cheap cars (paid off), lots of books, a yearly purchase of modest artwork, nice meals out, the occasional trip to the symphony/theatre (pre-pandemic), no vacations other than the annual Christmas family get-together (we stay with relatives, not in a hotel). Financial stability and we don't feel stretched, but we only had one kid for a reason. The time and effort we put into our jobs plus parenting doesn't leave room for much in the way of entertainment time anyway. It's certainly not the life we might have envisioned had you told us a few decades back that we would have this kind of HHI.

This all sounds sad.

[Anonymous]

We use our 529 to help

[Anonymous]

This is such a depressing thread. What are we all doing???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. HHI almost $500k, dual-income, both senior individual contributors in the tech industry. Generally worked 80+ hours a week since we were 22 years old, careful to have no debt other than our mortgage.

DH's dad was a jobless alcoholic, mom was a cafeteria worker. My grandpa was a third-world miner with a grade-school education, but all his kids grew up to get graduate degrees, so I grew up comfortably middle-class. But we're getting zero family help and expect to someday support our parents.

$40k/year in private-school tuition is built on the back of years of working our *sses off and likely needing to work into our 70s. Nice house, fairly cheap cars (paid off), lots of books, a yearly purchase of modest artwork, nice meals out, the occasional trip to the symphony/theatre (pre-pandemic), no vacations other than the annual Christmas family get-together (we stay with relatives, not in a hotel). Financial stability and we don't feel stretched, but we only had one kid for a reason. The time and effort we put into our jobs plus parenting doesn't leave room for much in the way of entertainment time anyway. It's certainly not the life we might have envisioned had you told us a few decades back that we would have this kind of HHI.

what do you do with the rest of your money? We have one kid in private ($45K), $400K income and easily spend $20K a year in travel plus about $10K a year in kids' activities (3 kids total).

If you're paying $40K on $500K then it means you have essentially lose $100K off your income ($40K plus the income tax on that) so let's round down and say you're making $400k.

$400K and you can't afford vacations or nice cars?

Savings people. Savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worked like a dog all my life,saved , and invested every dime and I woke-up one day rich which was a bit of a shock because I was born poor.

I'm not a member of any country club and fly under the radar at the school. People are a bit perplexed because I show up at all the big donor events and and see that the scenesters are puzzled and can't figure out what I'm doing there.

I love this!

Ditto.

[Anonymous]

The key is to make a lot of money and not spend too much of it. Simple, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 3 in private.

Salaries come to about 1.1- 1.4 and then have between 300-600 in stock comp per year that vests on varying schedules. The total has accumulated into a significant amount of shares. Do not cash out the stock (but might sell it to buy other stock for diversification purposes) but use the dividend proceeds to pay dues and entertainment expenses (members of a city club, a country club and two golf only clubs that allow “regional” memberships.).

No help from family with any expenses, including school but family homes in Maine and Montana are used for vacations or jump off points. Those homes were bought after we were adults so there was no help with college or grad school expenses either. Still, we have been very lucky.

Why would you need help from family at that income level.

Right?? The "still" is cracking me up. Some people are living on an entirely different planet.

It’s just an odd post. How you’re affording private school does not lead to how many houses you have. Frankly I don’t give a damn. PP sounds insecure. New $

[Anonymous]

We couldn't. We have a combined HHI of around $150k (both work in fundraising and have second jobs as well as a professor and event planner) We applied for K, got in everywhere but aid just couldn't cut it. One set of grandparents could but wouldn't help (don't like private) and the other could afford that much nor would we wanted them to. We went the Catholic school route (we happen to be Catholic so it was an option for us) and seem to be pleased so far. We receive aid and grandparents can help with that small bill. Not sure what we will do for high school.