At what income level is it a no-brainer to go private?

[Anonymous]

We are at 460k and 3 kids in private since PK (currently in elementary and middle school).

We have a low mortgage (3k) and are very careful about every $ we spend. We don’t go on expensive vacations and (almost) never eat out. It’s worth it to us. Our kids are all in top schools (Cathedrals, Sidwell, etc.)… not sure we would do it for less academic schools.

Kids are happy and thriving and doing many activities outside of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1.5mm HHI is like 800k after taxes? So you are going to pay 3x50 = 150k or about a fifth of your take-home pay for private school tuition. For me, this would be worth it for smaller class sizes, though I do not think the education at the elementary level is better than a good public. If you wait until 4th for private you will save 4x150k, what would you rather do with 550k in cash that can also benefit your child?

A lot more competitive if you wait past PK or K.

[Anonymous]

We have a $2.5m HHI and our kids go to public. Considering switching our younger kids. Oldest applied, got in and decided to stay at his local public.

[Anonymous]

It's never a no-brainer.
Find the right school for the child at the time. It's great that you have the money to have options - but explore ALL your options, including public.

As a dear friend said about considering schools:
"take it one kid at a time, one year at a time"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's never a no-brainer. Private schools have down sides -- and public schools have advantages -- beyond financial. What do your kids need?

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's never a no-brainer.
Find the right school for the child at the time. It's great that you have the money to have options - but explore ALL your options, including public.

As a dear friend said about considering schools:
"take it one kid at a time, one year at a time"

This is such great advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's never a no-brainer.
Find the right school for the child at the time. It's great that you have the money to have options - but explore ALL your options, including public.

As a dear friend said about considering schools:
"take it one kid at a time, one year at a time"

+1. My parents did this with my brother and I, and it was such a great way to get an education honestly. Admittedly we moved a lot because my dad was in the military, so we were regularly switching schools no matter what, but the flexible attitude provided a lot of comfort and freedom.

[Anonymous]

How secure are your jobs? What would happen if your kids got enmeshed in their school and then you could no longer afford it?

[Anonymous]

For me, it was always a no-one brainer...even when I had no $...city girl...city ( lousy public schools).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's never a no-brainer. Private schools have down sides -- and public schools have advantages -- beyond financial. What do your kids need?

As someone who’s done both l agree with this. In your shoes l would give public a chance.

[Anonymous]

We are slightly below your HHI - income is 1.2/1.3M a year, and even if private was what we thought was best for all three of our kids (1, 3, and 5), we don't view it as an easy decision. As a pp said, our take-home income is 600-700k (most is taxed in multiple jurisdictions including major amounts due in DC, NY, & CA). Our friends at Cathedral/Sidwell say annual school payments are well over 60k with technology fees, trip fees, etc., and we aren't comfortable with 1/3 of our income going to schools. The biggest unknown is whether our incomes will keep up with annual 4-5% tuition hikes, because that 1/3 could quickly get worse. We are starting our kids at our public elementary and then re-assessing in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've recently experienced a significant increase in our annual income.

We have 3 kids who are attending a great private preschool. We have mixed feelings about going all 12 years at a private vs starting at a JKLM school and moving to private for middle school.

We come from middle class backgrounds so do not have generational wealth or help from the grandparents.

We can afford private for all 3 now but don't want to find ourselves in "golden handcuffs" where we don't have room to leave a job or take a pay cut. (For context, right now our joint income is $1.5M per year but a few years ago it was at $370K per year when we both took pay cuts to follow jobs we were passionate about.)

With no debt and a relatively low mortgage ($3K per month), what income would you feel you need to bring in to go all in on private from preschool on while also saving and living comfortably?

It has nothing to do with income.

Private does not mean better.

This post is stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've recently experienced a significant increase in our annual income.

We have 3 kids who are attending a great private preschool. We have mixed feelings about going all 12 years at a private vs starting at a JKLM school and moving to private for middle school.

We come from middle class backgrounds so do not have generational wealth or help from the grandparents.

We can afford private for all 3 now but don't want to find ourselves in "golden handcuffs" where we don't have room to leave a job or take a pay cut. (For context, right now our joint income is $1.5M per year but a few years ago it was at $370K per year when we both took pay cuts to follow jobs we were passionate about.)

With no debt and a relatively low mortgage ($3K per month), what income would you feel you need to bring in to go all in on private from preschool on while also saving and living comfortably?

It has nothing to do with income.

Private does not mean better.

This post is stupid.

What is stupid: generalizing. Privates are better for some students, and are not for others...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's never a no-brainer.
Find the right school for the child at the time. It's great that you have the money to have options - but explore ALL your options, including public.

As a dear friend said about considering schools:
"take it one kid at a time, one year at a time"

+1. Our HHI is $3.5 million and our three kids go to public school. The oldest (an eighth grader) will be switching to private for high school. We LOVE our public elementary school and think the benefits of having friends nearby, walking to school, a great sense of community, etc. outweighed private elementary for our kids. We were less impressed with the middle school, so we started looking when our oldest was in 7th. We took our time, found a great fit and applied for 9th. We’ll eventually switch our other two but not for elementary.

[Anonymous]

I've thought about this in the case where we win the lottery or something, lol, and I think no matter what we would keep our kid in public. I agree with many of the above posters, do what's right for your kids, not your income.