What percentage of your net income goes to tuition?

[Anonymous]

I don't know. Better than the Koreans.

"He estimates that 70 percent of household expenditures go toward private education."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/1110/Drive-for-education-drives-South-Korean-families-into-the-red

[Anonymous]

Four kids, full tuition, across different private schools (though not religious or parochial schools). Probably between 7-8 per cent of net.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. Better than the Koreans.

"He estimates that 70 percent of household expenditures go toward private education."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/1110/Drive-for-education-drives-South-Korean-families-into-the-red

You actually believe that Koreans spend 70% of their net income on private tuition and your source is Christian Science Monitor? lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Four kids, full tuition, across different private schools (though not religious or parochial schools). Probably between 7-8 per cent of net.

Wow- what's your HHI?

[Anonymous]

21% of net household take home for two kids. That's after financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Last year, after expenses, probably 40% of discretionary take home. Sucks!

[Anonymous]

I *love* when ppl just say, "oh you should move!" D'oh!! Why didn't we think of that!??!!?

it is a connudrum - how to save for that 20% down payment when we are paying for tuition? but once we move, we'll have freed up 20% of our net? sigh.

[Anonymous]

I am certainly no financial expert, but I guess I don't fully understand why everyone thinks you need to own a house to move. Wouldn't moving into a rental in a good school district make more financial sense in some situations (especially for families with multiple children in private schools)? We will likely be going the private school route at great sacrifice, but I guess it just seems that people dismiss renting as an option sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid 2-3 private school tuitions for many years. Between 2002 and 2012 tuition as a percentage of our net income probably went from 10% to 50%. Wow!

Guess what? Last year we switched the kids to public. Although it was a hard choice they're doing well and it is such a RELIEF! There was no way we could keep pace with those tuition increases.

Then why are you on the private school forum? Not buying it.

[Anonymous]

Childcare is 28% of our net pay.

Mortgage is 34%

Student loans are 10%

We are drowning - this is 72% of our net right here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us are in lousy school clusters (or entire counties), 07:46. Yes, I know, some aren't, but most people in my DS's independent school are there after trying the public route for the oldest child, deciding it wasn't going to work, and switching. So for me (lousy public option) paying 20% of my after tax income for school, while living in a small crappy house and paying 15% of take home on mortgage, still leaves us with a decent quality of life. The key for us is if we're going to do private we must stay in the small crappy house or else the finances don't work. Since we like the school more than we care about housing it works fine.

Why not just move to a better house in a good school district?

We are in a "good" school district and pulled our kid out to go to private. MoCo schools are just getting so bad. I actually wish I could move to a cheaper area but it isn't worth the hassle. I would NEVER leave private in the hopes a public school could possibly work. Too much at stake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Four kids, full tuition, across different private schools (though not religious or parochial schools). Probably between 7-8 per cent of net.

Wow- what's your HHI?

Even if the PP does not respond to your question, this should be something that you can calculate yourself. Assume the PP pays anywhere between $28-30K on average per child times four children. That amount is 8 percent of PP's net.

[Anonymous]

I'm a PP who won't "just move." Responding to 10:48, the reason we don't rent is that it actually works financially for us to send one kid private and live in a cheap house in a bad school district. I agonized for a while about my desire to support the public schools, but then I realized: moving to a rich neighborhood and leaving my working class neighborhood with yet another house on the market is just moving trouble around. I would get to say I use the public schools, yes, but the neighborhood we'd move to would be even more exclusive than the independent school my kid now goes to. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that we don't see avoiding paying tuition as our family's highest financial or moral goal. Getting a great education and spending lots of time together are. There are lots of ways to skin that cat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a PP who won't "just move." Responding to 10:48, the reason we don't rent is that it actually works financially for us to send one kid private and live in a cheap house in a bad school district. I agonized for a while about my desire to support the public schools, but then I realized: moving to a rich neighborhood and leaving my working class neighborhood with yet another house on the market is just moving trouble around. I would get to say I use the public schools, yes, but the neighborhood we'd move to would be even more exclusive than the independent school my kid now goes to. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that we don't see avoiding paying tuition as our family's highest financial or moral goal. Getting a great education and spending lots of time together are. There are lots of ways to skin that cat.

+1

[Anonymous]

2 kids. 20%. But we have no mortgage.