How do people afford private schools?

[Anonymous]

Money from one side of the family that owned a business for decades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only Fans
Embezzlement
Fraud
Growing and selling
Child exploitation
High paying jobs where they never see their children

lol! I actually know people like this.

Although you forgot the home equity loans and credit card debt. More vanilla but also more common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vent post: after receiving our financial aid determination—less than I'd hoped—the sticker shock of how much this is going to cost is sinking in... How do people afford this?

Oh reality just set in! Should have did the worst case budget before even applying. If you need aid to attend, you can't afford it. That's just the truth. Don't put your family in a hardship position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We both are relatively high earners (combined HHI was 1.4M last year). We don’t have family money and both took out loans for both undergrad and law school (paid off).

Not going to lie — even at that income the monthly tuition bill is painful. It’s just a really absurd amount of money.

How can it be painful with that HHI? Even if you have 4 kids in private school and are paying $220,000 per year, I don't really understand how it is painful.

You do realize that people who make that much are paying close to or more than $600k in taxes right?

Of course. But that leaves $800,000. I am a private school parent and we have $200,000 take home pay left over after paying tuitions and I would never say it's painful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of law partners, surgeons or other specialists, consulting firm partners. Basically lots of people making $500k+ in our school. Those who aren’t have rich grandparents.

Correct. Plus school admin and faculty families get a big discount

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vent post: after receiving our financial aid determination—less than I'd hoped—the sticker shock of how much this is going to cost is sinking in... How do people afford this?

We are Catholic so we shoot for the Catholic schools. We do not/would not qualify for financial aid so schools costing $40k and up are not going to happen, especially since we have two kids.

Also if you think the cost will squeeze you too much, you can always back out and cancel. You’ll lose your deposit but then at least you are not bound. All of these kids will end up in college together at some point. You can pay for other enrichment or prep to ensure your kid is ready for college. Private school absolutely isn’t a must, even for the people on here who try and pretend it is.

[Anonymous]

The answer is simple, they have money, whether through inheritance or via income, they have it.

We make 950k+ and my kids go to public ( Langley), we are happy with our choice but I do understand if private is a big priority for some parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They make a lot of money.
I have a hard time naming any family at our school that has a HHI under $800K (besides us).

We often feel like the only one in our income bracket (two high level feds).

This is us but grandparents pay. I see others like us.

[Anonymous]

Kid’s grandparents help us.

[Anonymous]

The stocks I bought four years ago would easily pay for years of private. Private needs my kid more than my kid needs private.
I'd say most have stocks that did well.

[Anonymous]

Our kids' grandparents pay for their private school. We make about $330k and maybe we could stretch and figure it out but I suspect we would instead move to a farther-flung suburb with good public schools.

[Anonymous]

One kid, low housing costs, old cars, relatively high income but not wealthy and no family help.

[Anonymous]

Not having to associate with poor people is priceless!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vent post: after receiving our financial aid determination—less than I'd hoped—the sticker shock of how much this is going to cost is sinking in... How do people afford this?

Ridiculous question. How do people afford $5m houses? Or more? I assume OP doesn’t live in DC. They have and/or make a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

Grandparents over here. We make about $600k but grandparents pay tuition. College too.