FA - real life

[Anonymous]

There is a divide on this thread between the financially literate people who understand that you can’t foot the tuition bill for multiple kids on a HHI of $200-300k and the other group, which I assume is mostly SAHPs pretending they understand what a household budget looks like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a divide on this thread between the financially literate people who understand that you can’t foot the tuition bill for multiple kids on a HHI of $200-300k and the other group, which I assume is mostly SAHPs pretending they understand what a household budget looks like.

Nobody is saying it would be affordable for people living paycheck to paycheck on $200k-300k HHI.

We are saying those families are terrible at financial planning and are not worth giving financial aid to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a divide on this thread between the financially literate people who understand that you can’t foot the tuition bill for multiple kids on a HHI of $200-300k and the other group, which I assume is mostly SAHPs pretending they understand what a household budget looks like.

Nobody is saying it would be affordable for people living paycheck to paycheck on $200k-300k HHI.

We are saying those families are terrible at financial planning and are not worth giving financial aid to.

Yes, see, this is exactly what I was referring to.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.

They would be nowhere near what’s necessary to cover 13 years of $45k+ tuition or anything close to it. Especially with more than one kid.

Speak for yourself. Approximately 10% annual return on $500k would cover it with just interest for one kid.

You cannot sustainably withdraw 10% from a portfolio. The first down year and you are screwed. It also leaves no room for capital appreciation so 13 years on you would be drawing $50k while tuition is way higher.

That was not meant to be taken literally. Within the context of portfolio with annual variation in returns, and a high growth rate, you can see how tuition becomes negligible at some point.

It’s absurd to think that a typical 20-something or even young 30-something could save 500k before private school before they have kids. Most are paying off student loans, saving for retirement, and saving for a down payment.

The typical parent will not send their kids to private schools. That is what public schools are for.

You can keep making excuses, but most parents in private school found a way to make it work. Saving money while in your 20s and 30s, before major expenses kick in, is actually quite easy.

My HHI is 800k/yr and my kid isn’t in school yet. I won’t ever get aid and don’t care to. You were specifically saying that a family making 300k/yr should be able to have set aside 500k for private school before their kid starts school. That’s completely unrealistic.

Many families with those household incomes didn’t start there. They often graduate significantly in the negative, too. And then, as I said, they have other more important savings goals. It’s ridiculous to think they should 500k set aside outside of taking care of all their other financial needs.

I'm telling you that private school isn't for most people. I would only recommend it for people who can pay the tuition easily. I'm describing who these people are. They exist because I know many.

So you retract saying that people with a 300k HHI should be able to set aside 500k before kids outside of retirement and downpayment savings?

Financial aid is available so those without the ability to save 500k in a taxable brokerage by age 35 can also attend. Private schools that offer financial aid are not just for exceptionally high-income and wealthy families.

I think it is reasonable for parents to plan and be able to pay for it themselves. However most people are bad with money. Their poor financial planning is why someone with a $300k HHI is applying for financial aid.

No. That’s not correct. There are many reasons why a prudent family making 300k a year needs financial aid. These reasons include graduate school debt, recent income increase (such that prior income was much lower), high medical expenses due to serious illnesses and disabilities, etc.

What would make you really bad with money would be enrolling at a school at full pay that you can’t afford when financial aid is available to make it affordable.

School debt should not count as that was a choice. Recent income increase should go all for tuition.

I say this as a person who got a full-ride to a top law school, but absent generational wealth, it’s difficult to impossible to get a biglaw job (i.e. a job that pays the big bucks) without having substantial student loans. You need that debt to get the high income.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.

They would be nowhere near what’s necessary to cover 13 years of $45k+ tuition or anything close to it. Especially with more than one kid.

Speak for yourself. Approximately 10% annual return on $500k would cover it with just interest for one kid.

You cannot sustainably withdraw 10% from a portfolio. The first down year and you are screwed. It also leaves no room for capital appreciation so 13 years on you would be drawing $50k while tuition is way higher.

That was not meant to be taken literally. Within the context of portfolio with annual variation in returns, and a high growth rate, you can see how tuition becomes negligible at some point.

It’s absurd to think that a typical 20-something or even young 30-something could save 500k before private school before they have kids. Most are paying off student loans, saving for retirement, and saving for a down payment.

The typical parent will not send their kids to private schools. That is what public schools are for.

You can keep making excuses, but most parents in private school found a way to make it work. Saving money while in your 20s and 30s, before major expenses kick in, is actually quite easy.

My HHI is 800k/yr and my kid isn’t in school yet. I won’t ever get aid and don’t care to. You were specifically saying that a family making 300k/yr should be able to have set aside 500k for private school before their kid starts school. That’s completely unrealistic.

Many families with those household incomes didn’t start there. They often graduate significantly in the negative, too. And then, as I said, they have other more important savings goals. It’s ridiculous to think they should 500k set aside outside of taking care of all their other financial needs.

I'm telling you that private school isn't for most people. I would only recommend it for people who can pay the tuition easily. I'm describing who these people are. They exist because I know many.

So you retract saying that people with a 300k HHI should be able to set aside 500k before kids outside of retirement and downpayment savings?

Financial aid is available so those without the ability to save 500k in a taxable brokerage by age 35 can also attend. Private schools that offer financial aid are not just for exceptionally high-income and wealthy families.

I think it is reasonable for parents to plan and be able to pay for it themselves. However most people are bad with money. Their poor financial planning is why someone with a $300k HHI is applying for financial aid.

No. That’s not correct. There are many reasons why a prudent family making 300k a year needs financial aid. These reasons include graduate school debt, recent income increase (such that prior income was much lower), high medical expenses due to serious illnesses and disabilities, etc.

What would make you really bad with money would be enrolling at a school at full pay that you can’t afford when financial aid is available to make it affordable.

School debt should not count as that was a choice. Recent income increase should go all for tuition.

I say this as a person who got a full-ride to a top law school, but absent generational wealth, it’s difficult to impossible to get a biglaw job (i.e. a job that pays the big bucks) without having substantial student loans. You need that debt to get the high income.

Wouldn’t that be paid off rather quickly, long before kids arrive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.

They would be nowhere near what’s necessary to cover 13 years of $45k+ tuition or anything close to it. Especially with more than one kid.

Speak for yourself. Approximately 10% annual return on $500k would cover it with just interest for one kid.

You cannot sustainably withdraw 10% from a portfolio. The first down year and you are screwed. It also leaves no room for capital appreciation so 13 years on you would be drawing $50k while tuition is way higher.

That was not meant to be taken literally. Within the context of portfolio with annual variation in returns, and a high growth rate, you can see how tuition becomes negligible at some point.

It’s absurd to think that a typical 20-something or even young 30-something could save 500k before private school before they have kids. Most are paying off student loans, saving for retirement, and saving for a down payment.

The typical parent will not send their kids to private schools. That is what public schools are for.

You can keep making excuses, but most parents in private school found a way to make it work. Saving money while in your 20s and 30s, before major expenses kick in, is actually quite easy.

My HHI is 800k/yr and my kid isn’t in school yet. I won’t ever get aid and don’t care to. You were specifically saying that a family making 300k/yr should be able to have set aside 500k for private school before their kid starts school. That’s completely unrealistic.

Many families with those household incomes didn’t start there. They often graduate significantly in the negative, too. And then, as I said, they have other more important savings goals. It’s ridiculous to think they should 500k set aside outside of taking care of all their other financial needs.

I'm telling you that private school isn't for most people. I would only recommend it for people who can pay the tuition easily. I'm describing who these people are. They exist because I know many.

So you retract saying that people with a 300k HHI should be able to set aside 500k before kids outside of retirement and downpayment savings?

Financial aid is available so those without the ability to save 500k in a taxable brokerage by age 35 can also attend. Private schools that offer financial aid are not just for exceptionally high-income and wealthy families.

I think it is reasonable for parents to plan and be able to pay for it themselves. However most people are bad with money. Their poor financial planning is why someone with a $300k HHI is applying for financial aid.

No. That’s not correct. There are many reasons why a prudent family making 300k a year needs financial aid. These reasons include graduate school debt, recent income increase (such that prior income was much lower), high medical expenses due to serious illnesses and disabilities, etc.

What would make you really bad with money would be enrolling at a school at full pay that you can’t afford when financial aid is available to make it affordable.

School debt should not count as that was a choice. Recent income increase should go all for tuition.

I say this as a person who got a full-ride to a top law school, but absent generational wealth, it’s difficult to impossible to get a biglaw job (i.e. a job that pays the big bucks) without having substantial student loans. You need that debt to get the high income.

Wouldn’t that be paid off rather quickly, long before kids arrive?

Depends on when you graduate, when you’re having kids, and how much debt you take on. If you pay entirely with loans, you’re graduating with 400k in debt at 10% interest and a starting salary of 225k. On an extremely aggressive schedule that’s putting retirement and a house down payment on the back burner, it’s going to take you at least 3-4 years to pay them off. The average law student graduates at 27-28. Many take a lower paying clerkship after graduation. That means debt isn’t paid off until about 33 if you’re frugal and aggressive. If you graduated at an older age, want kids before 35, and/or want to buy a house at all before kids, private school is going to be a stretch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a divide on this thread between the financially literate people who understand that you can’t foot the tuition bill for multiple kids on a HHI of $200-300k and the other group, which I assume is mostly SAHPs pretending they understand what a household budget looks like.

Why would you assume that? It makes you look pretty stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:You would be a wealthy family in public school. However you want financial aid to put a total of 3 kids in private school instead. How does any of this make sense?

This, what do you consider a modest home. You made life choices, as in house cost and number of children and want a lifestyle above what you can afford. At 300K you should not get aid.

I agree. And my son went to a DC private school and I wanted our donations to go to a underprivledged student, not a family making 300K with 3 kids. That feels *entitled* to me.

Then don’t donate. It’s too expensive for the schools to fund lots of high-need kids. They’d rather give five families 10k off than give one kid a full scholarship.

This is the only answer. It doesn't matter who you think should have done what or how you imagined the money would be spent - the schools do it this way for practical reasons. If they wanted to do something else they'd already be doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We chose not to have a third kid because we couldn’t do that and send our current two to private school. We are full pay. I don’t donate because of families like you- why should you get the third kid that we chose responsibly not to have?

this.

Yes, this really is the root of it. The parents who are rich enough for full pay, but not mega-wealthy, are extremely resentful of those whose choices are working out better.

Imagine the devastation- you limited your family size because your desire to use high-status private schools superseded your desire for additional children. Then, families of similar or LESS means with greater risk tolerance get to have both, when you sacrificed! The horror and unfairness!

Of course the mega wealthy do not care about these petty status games because the costs are pennies to them and the success of their offspring is not truly impacted by school selection.

These instincts reminds me of the downwardly mobile children of UMC parents who become communists; their motivations for wealth and property redistribution is the fact they see that they don’t have the wealth they feel entitled to.

Resentment pure and simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.

So then you’re (the collective you) are not actually paying for private off your salary as many have suggesting people are or should.

Sure, I have savings, retirement, and 529s. I don’t have a private school fund. If that makes me an irresponsible adult, so be it. But then it’s also absurd to give people a hard time - as some posters have - about applying for FA if you want more than $200k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.

So then you’re (the collective you) are not actually paying for private off your salary as many have suggesting people are or should.

Sure, I have savings, retirement, and 529s. I don’t have a private school fund. If that makes me an irresponsible adult, so be it. But then it’s also absurd to give people a hard time - as some posters have - about applying for FA if you want more than $200k.

If you wanted your kids to attend private school, how did you expect to pay for it? You either could have tried to boost your salary or set aside some savings. Presumably this was a consideration 10+ years ago, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.

So then you’re (the collective you) are not actually paying for private off your salary as many have suggesting people are or should.

Sure, I have savings, retirement, and 529s. I don’t have a private school fund. If that makes me an irresponsible adult, so be it. But then it’s also absurd to give people a hard time - as some posters have - about applying for FA if you want more than $200k.

If you wanted your kids to attend private school, how did you expect to pay for it? You either could have tried to boost your salary or set aside some savings. Presumably this was a consideration 10+ years ago, right?

Most people cannot just “boost [their] salary,” like you imagine where they just magically get a job that pays 100k a year more. Only a small minority of people voluntarily take poorly paid work when there’s a higher paying alternative. And yeah, PP probably “set aside some savings” like most people do. “Some savings” doesn’t generate 50k/yr per kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.

So then you’re (the collective you) are not actually paying for private off your salary as many have suggesting people are or should.

Sure, I have savings, retirement, and 529s. I don’t have a private school fund. If that makes me an irresponsible adult, so be it. But then it’s also absurd to give people a hard time - as some posters have - about applying for FA if you want more than $200k.

If you wanted your kids to attend private school, how did you expect to pay for it? You either could have tried to boost your salary or set aside some savings. Presumably this was a consideration 10+ years ago, right?

With a combination of our own funds and the advertised financial aid specifically designed to bridge the gap between what we could afford and the cost of tuition. If we didn’t get financial aid, we wouldn’t have been able to enroll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a divide on this thread between the financially literate people who understand that you can’t foot the tuition bill for multiple kids on a HHI of $200-300k and the other group, which I assume is mostly SAHPs pretending they understand what a household budget looks like.

Why would you assume that? It makes you look pretty stupid.

Spoken like someone that thinks you can afford $100k worth of tuition off a HHI of $280k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly don’t get - or believe - the math behind the claims being made by posters that they can afford $30K-plus tuition per child without financial aid and they make $300K or less.

Show me the math and your budget. I am a single parent living in an old 1,500 sf home in Silver Spring who shops at Aldi and Costco and 75% of our clothes are consignments or hand me downs or very old, have a paid off older car, no restaurants or even fast food, our vacations are usually road trips to visit family, and kids in relatively inexpensive extracurriculars (no travel soccer or fencing or ice skating), and there’s no frigging way I could afford private for one child let alone two. And I make $250K a year.

Between the taxes, 401k, and the cost of my health insurance premiums, nearly half of my paycheck is gone before it hits my bank account. Then I’m contributing to 529s and putting away something for savings - barely. Still need some childcare for the summer time - usually county camps - and I save for that all year. There would not be any room for $3,000 per month after taxes for private school.

Would just love to see the actual breakdown of your budgets for those claiming they can swing private school for one or more kids and they aren’t pulling in at least $350k a year.

While I don't know about other people, I set myself up financially before having kids. Nothing was handed to me and I earned it through early savings and strategic planning. For most people, this would be things like real estate investment or financial investments that may or may not generate much taxable income on an annual basis. Annual income on taxes does not necessarily reflect wealth.

Agree with you. But we have multiple posters saying they make it work making under $300k a year as if they do it on salary / income alone. If that’s the case - and again, hard to make that math work if we are talking post tax tuition of $30k per kid - then would love to see how people are doing it.

If you have other income beyond income or a trust or a parent who who pays part of tuition than that’s not truly making it on salary alone.

Most of us assume responsible adults have built up some wealth by the time they have kids. Therefore if you have a $300k salary we would assume your investments on the side are pretty healthy too. Making it on salary alone is like living paycheck to paycheck.

So then you’re (the collective you) are not actually paying for private off your salary as many have suggesting people are or should.

Sure, I have savings, retirement, and 529s. I don’t have a private school fund. If that makes me an irresponsible adult, so be it. But then it’s also absurd to give people a hard time - as some posters have - about applying for FA if you want more than $200k.

If you wanted your kids to attend private school, how did you expect to pay for it? You either could have tried to boost your salary or set aside some savings. Presumably this was a consideration 10+ years ago, right?

DP. Private school was not a consideration until public school stopped working for my kid. At that point we already had the number of kids we were going to have, we'd bought a house, we were deep into careers that pay what they pay. Most people don't plan their lives 10+ years in advance like you are suggesting is necessary to afford private school.

We have spent our house remodel savings on private school, put off projects, put off travel, landed higher paying jobs - and, yes, also received FA.