How.do you afford private school? Any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the same OP who got blasted on her thread where she is moving here from Chicago and her DH makes $110k, she stays home, and is planning on buying a $800k home. Insisted on living in the city, wanted financial aid at the same time saying she could go up to $1 million home, and was saying she was just going to flip a gut job house in a few years herself.
Took zero advice and was insisting since she always got everything and made it work in the Midwest she could do it here.

OP, just stop. You can't afford it! You were oh so cool and "bad a Bing bass boom" on the last thread where you were told over and over you had to give up something.

I don't think so- don't think she was in education.

[Anonymous]

PP here, the post is "Moving to DC in July..." in this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the same OP who got blasted on her thread where she is moving here from Chicago and her DH makes $110k, she stays home, and is planning on buying a $800k home. Insisted on living in the city, wanted financial aid at the same time saying she could go up to $1 million home, and was saying she was just going to flip a gut job house in a few years herself.
Took zero advice and was insisting since she always got everything and made it work in the Midwest she could do it here.

OP, just stop. You can't afford it! You were oh so cool and "bad a Bing bass boom" on the last thread where you were told over and over you had to give up something.

I don't think so- don't think she was in education.

It's the same one. She was in non-profit, she changed some pronouns and left out a lot of details but it's the same one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the same OP who got blasted on her thread where she is moving here from Chicago and her DH makes $110k, she stays home, and is planning on buying a $800k home. Insisted on living in the city, wanted financial aid at the same time saying she could go up to $1 million home, and was saying she was just going to flip a gut job house in a few years herself.
Took zero advice and was insisting since she always got everything and made it work in the Midwest she could do it here.

OP, just stop. You can't afford it! You were oh so cool and "bad a Bing bass boom" on the last thread where you were told over and over you had to give up something.

I don't think so- don't think she was in education.

It's the same one. She was in non-profit, she changed some pronouns and left out a lot of details but it's the same one.

Ok. Well, if so, how strange.

[Anonymous]

Look at the Faith-Based Schools...they are much cheaper. Depending on the grade/age of your child...many are not more than sending a child to daycare full time...e.g., 12 - 15 k per year.

[Anonymous]

If you move into a good public school district where they jack up the housing rate and overspend on a house just for the sake of the quality of the school versus paying for a private in a not-so-good school district. You're probably paying more for public in this case.

[Anonymous]

My suggestions in no particular orderractice living way lower than your means and see how much you can save in a year. Think about starting your kids in public and look into transferring for middle school or high school to private. By then you will know your child's abilities and needs and it will be easier to make a decision. Look into public school special programs and supplement with cultural activities and other mind growing opportunities, not just rote learning. Go back to work when your youngest is 2. Don't wait longer or you will have a hard time reentering the job market.

[Anonymous]

I suggest you do a wide search and apply for admissions and financial aid, you might be surprised with what you get. At the same time all of the other comments on looking for good publics and trying to save money while upping your income are also logical. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

This is how my parents did it: drove used cars into the ground. Like 20 years. They actually still have 1 and it's 40 years old.
No vacations or maybe a weekend in OC in September.
Do own yard work, cleaning and house and car maintenance.
No eating out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to send my DD to private school and have seen a few I really love, but I'm having a really hard time figuring out how this could be at all feasible financially.

The schools are so expensive, and we wouldn't qualify for a need-based scholarship. We are scraping by but don't have that kind of money to spend year after year, and we have two kids (one is a baby).

I stay at home now with our baby and would like to for at least another year or two. Going back to work would give us a second income, but it would also mean increased childcare costs. My DH works in government and makes a decent but not huge salary, and before staying home, I worked at a non-profit and made very little. I do have an education background (though more admin than teaching), so I guess getting a job at the school and free/reduced tuition could be a goal, but that seems like a long-shot and hard to plan for, especially since my older DD would go there for a few years before I'd start if I stay home with our younger kid.

Any thoughts? How do you make this work if you don't have a lot of extra funds? Is it worth it?

Well yes, that is how it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to send my DD to private school and have seen a few I really love, but I'm having a really hard time figuring out how this could be at all feasible financially.

The schools are so expensive, and we wouldn't qualify for a need-based scholarship. We are scraping by but don't have that kind of money to spend year after year, and we have two kids (one is a baby).

I stay at home now with our baby and would like to for at least another year or two. Going back to work would give us a second income, but it would also mean increased childcare costs. My DH works in government and makes a decent but not huge salary, and before staying home, I worked at a non-profit and made very little. I do have an education background (though more admin than teaching), so I guess getting a job at the school and free/reduced tuition could be a goal, but that seems like a long-shot and hard to plan for, especially since my older DD would go there for a few years before I'd start if I stay home with our younger kid.

Any thoughts? How do you make this work if you don't have a lot of extra funds? Is it worth it?

Well yes, that is how it works.

Seriously. Our Chicagoan friend is not the sharpest knife...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to send my DD to private school and have seen a few I really love, but I'm having a really hard time figuring out how this could be at all feasible financially.

The schools are so expensive, and we wouldn't qualify for a need-based scholarship. We are scraping by but don't have that kind of money to spend year after year, and we have two kids (one is a baby).

I stay at home now with our baby and would like to for at least another year or two. Going back to work would give us a second income, but it would also mean increased childcare costs. My DH works in government and makes a decent but not huge salary, and before staying home, I worked at a non-profit and made very little. I do have an education background (though more admin than teaching), so I guess getting a job at the school and free/reduced tuition could be a goal, but that seems like a long-shot and hard to plan for, especially since my older DD would go there for a few years before I'd start if I stay home with our younger kid.

Any thoughts? How do you make this work if you don't have a lot of extra funds? Is it worth it?

Dual Income. When my spouse and I married, we both knew we would each keep working once kids arrived. It wasn't even a question based on our personalities. We love our kids, but neither one of us was ever going to be stay at home. It was challenging enough to figure out who would stop traveling for work and who would have a local job. It's worked out great and now the $ from that have enabled private schools and fully funded college accounts (250K+) for each child. But we did give up a lot in terms of seeing our kids 24/7 and the other things that SAHP get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you move into a good public school district where they jack up the housing rate and overspend on a house just for the sake of the quality of the school versus paying for a private in a not-so-good school district. You're probably paying more for public in this case.

God, there is always someone using this stupid argument. Two kids at $34k per year k-12 = $816,000. There is not a $816,000 difference between a normalish house in not so great school districts and good school districts. There is a $816,000 difference between a mansion in kalorama and a townhouse in land over, but I don't think that population you are talking about is manning that kind of decision. Most people trying to justify private vs. public are probably talking about the difference between a $800,000 - $1.2 million dollar house in Bethesda/Arlington and a $600,000 row house in Petworth. Unless you live mortgage free in something you bought in the late 90s this argument is a loser. Plus, the money you put into a house, you get back (at least mostly....) when you sell it. Private vs. public is not a financial decision, if it were, only the super rich could ever, ever, ever justify the cost because $816,000 isn't that much money to them.

[Anonymous]

We switched from public to private for HS. All in, it will be about 175K for private HS for two at a well regarded Catholic HS. Having made the switch, I wish we had done it sooner. We also moved to be closer to school, and that wasn't inexpensive either.

I think the thing with private schools is you have to be poor enough to get a lot of FA, or wealthy enough that having multiple kids in school at the same time does not sink you financially. So you either need to be 100K or less HHI, or 400K plus HHI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We switched from public to private for HS. All in, it will be about 175K for private HS for two at a well regarded Catholic HS. Having made the switch, I wish we had done it sooner. We also moved to be closer to school, and that wasn't inexpensive either.

I think the thing with private schools is you have to be poor enough to get a lot of FA, or wealthy enough that having multiple kids in school at the same time does not sink you financially. So you either need to be 100K or less HHI, or 400K plus HHI.

So true. Our HHI is $355K per year (with 2 parents working full-time), and we spend $7600 per month on tuition (total for 2 kids), for 10 months of the year. It means we live in a very small house (which I increasingly hate) and drive old cars. After saving for retirement and paying the mortgage ($2800/month), saving for college, and paying for food/electricity/gas/phones, there is not much left.