How much do families make in order to afford private school for two children?

[Anonymous]

175K poster here - we only have one child and do not intend to have any more. We also did not get awarded any financial aid (although we both work).

[Anonymous]

10:56 here. Thats the big dilemma. Make too much for assistance (and I would feel terrible taking away from families who need it) and at the same time 20-40k/yr for 1-2 kids is a HUGE chunk!

We've ran the numbers too and figure that our alternate is to move to VA or MD (ack!) but then we would be upping our mortgage the same amount as the tuition.

We have a grt house in Crestwood we got at $650k right before the big boom. To get something even close in size& features it would be $1M-$1.5M+ in CChase, Bethesda, McLean, Potomac, etc. So the monthly increase would be about the same as our tuition pmt. So then although our mortgage pmt is tax deductable and tuition is not, we figure its the same $$ out of pocket and minus the DC environment we love...

....so we're staying put and figuring out the tuition somehow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:56 here. Thats the big dilemma. Make too much for assistance (and I would feel terrible taking away from families who need it) and at the same time 20-40k/yr for 1-2 kids is a HUGE chunk!

We've ran the numbers too and figure that our alternate is to move to VA or MD (ack!) but then we would be upping our mortgage the same amount as the tuition.

We have a grt house in Crestwood we got at $650k right before the big boom. To get something even close in size& features it would be $1M-$1.5M+ in CChase, Bethesda, McLean, Potomac, etc. So the monthly increase would be about the same as our tuition pmt. So then although our mortgage pmt is tax deductable and tuition is not, we figure its the same $$ out of pocket and minus the DC environment we love...

....so we're staying put and figuring out the tuition somehow!

I've been thinking some of these same things exactly! I'm always trying to crunch number in my head: $4k mortgage vs. $7k or more, but tax deductible, then minus the cost of tuition, but then I wouldn't live in the District!

So we're staying too!

[Anonymous]

Wow - we are clearly in the wrong line of work - never thought of ourselves as "poor" until just now LOL!

Then again, we aren't planning to send our children to private school....

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is about $120K, and we send our only child to private school at approx. $20k per year (with no assistance.) We could afford to send a second child, but it would mean lowering retirement savings substantially. The secret here is to know ahead of time that this is what you want to do. We fell in love with a particular school when our child was 2 months old (!!!) and realized that we were in no position to send him there. So we SAVED every penny for 5 years to create our own scholarship fund. We ended up using most of it to pay off our 9 year old mortgage. With no mortgage, much is possible! I know not everyone would choose to do this, but my point is that it is all in your priorities. And I mean that in a very non-judgmental way, because there is nothing wrong with choosing a nicer house if you live close to a good public school. But if you keep your mortgage expense lower, and/or really budget your other items, it can be done!! Just factor in a 5 percent tuition increase every single year -- it would be a shame to make sacrifices only to find out that you can no longer afford your choice just 3 or 4 years down the road.