Can two fed govt job family afford to send two kids to elite private school?

[Anonymous]

You didn't say exactly where you live. But here is a possible alternative. Why not pay tuition to attend a public school in a nearby county or alternative school? For example, MoCo is is around $13K per year. That is a significant difference from $30K.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi OP,
We have an analogous situation (less HHI but 1 kid in private not two). We are doing it but only for middle school and possibly HS. We live pretty frugally (old cars and such), watch our standing expenses and buy second-hand, etc. We could do more but DH is a bit more of a spender than me and I don't want to argue over every penny.

Why don't you NOW pretend you have one or two kids in private school, and pay yourself what tuition would be into a separate account. See what's it's like to live like that. You might be able to do it. [b]Plus you could get financial aid with the second child enrolling, possibly. [/b] If you can't bear the expense you'll know and you'll have a nice nest egg for the move. Good luck! [/quote]

Seriously???? They give financial aid to people who make 300k a year? This rich bubble you all live in is crazy.[/quote]

Is there any truth to this? That people can get financial aid at this income?

[Anonymous]

In my opinion you dont want to spend that kind of money. Consider how much your children will need for college. And what happens when each of them starts a travel sport at 3-10K per year??? It is a slippry slope.

Consider the cheapest, smallest house in an area with good public schools. The houses typically go up in value and your children will have a richer and more diverse education.

I live in Montgomery county and know you can get into the Wootton School district, single family or townhouse for between 500 and 700K. Much cheaper then sending two kids to private school and Wootton is better then most private schools and much more diverse.

[Anonymous]

We tried private for a year because of an unexpected boundary change. Is very nice school and motivating, but it is too scary for me to be so close to the edge financially. You can go broke at ANY income. Your "habits" regarding your lifestyle are very hard to change, once you are used to living on 300K. Try setting 6K aside each month and see how it feels. Our DCs are doing very well, but the foundation was built in public. We are probably going back to public -- college, grad school, retirement accounts need filling. If we had a scholarship we would live right through the social issues, but I do not see FA in our future -- HHI is still too high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good gravy, there are scads of pricey private schools in the Washington area. If so many people think $300k is not sufficient HHI to have the kids go to these schools, how much is needed? $500k HHI? $1 million?

We make over $400K and would have to seriously change our standard of living to spend an additional $5K a month on private school. We save a bit more than that each month, but who wants to live that close to the line?

I completely agree with you. It is simply crazy to me that people will struggle to pay $60k a year on private school when we live in a region with some of the best public schools in the country. Unless and until something goes wrong at our local public school, or I feel that my child has issues that require private education, I simply can't rationalize that outlay year and after year. Of course, if 60K was nothing but a drop in the bucket because I made 1 mil a year, then paying for private school would be a no-brainer.

Not to mention the 60k isn't necessarily a good investment. There are tons of morons that graduate from private school. Your 60k a year would be much better invested in a home in a good school district. You'll at least have equity in it after 12 years of mortgage payments. There are also other ways to educate your children outside of school. What about trips to Europe, traveling in the US, language classes? You won't be able to do that if you privately educate.

[Anonymous]

With how little you have in retirement savings you are insane to think about spending that kind of money on private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:300K-100K (taxes/health/TSP cont.) - 60K(tuition)-36K(mortgage)=about $8,000 per month take home pay. I think most American families would be thrilled to have that kinda dough.

The calculations on this are all wrong. We pay FAR MORE than 100k in taxes - we lose closer to 130-140 when it is all said and done (factoring state and federal taxes and contributions to retirement/health insurance).

We pay ~105k in taxes on 290K, so the ballpark wasn't that far off. That's a lot extra to be paying; how much is retirement in that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With how little you have in retirement savings you are insane to think about spending that kind of money on private schools.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You didn't say exactly where you live. But here is a possible alternative. Why not pay tuition to attend a public school in a nearby county or alternative school? For example, MoCo is is around $13K per year. That is a significant difference from $30K.

do people do this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good gravy, there are scads of pricey private schools in the Washington area. If so many people think $300k is not sufficient HHI to have the kids go to these schools, how much is needed? $500k HHI? $1 million?

We make over $400K and would have to seriously change our standard of living to spend an additional $5K a month on private school. We save a bit more than that each month, but who wants to live that close to the line?

Cry me a river. I am so grateful I had parents who made my schooling their priority.

LOL! That was a pretty obnoxious statement.

OP, yes you can afford...after maxxing out retirement for the both of you going forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live outside DC, but I would love some help trying to figure out if we can afford (or if it is wise to pay) $60K/year to send our two kids to an elite private school. DH and I both work, and our combined income is 300K (with limited increases in the future --I'm a fed; he's a prof). Our 15-year mortgage (in a school district with poor public schools) is $3K and the other expenses are fairly normal (old cars so no car payments, no cable TV, but we have cell phones and "typical" family expenses, such as dance lessons, the occasional meal out, grocery, utilites, etc.). We have around 100K in savings, and about 150K in retirement/401K accounts, and we are in our late 30s. (No family money or inherited money in the picture).

I'm sorry OP, but you said you are both in your late 30s and only have $150k in retirement (combined)!!!???? :O

NO. You cannot afford private ELEMENTARY school. You need to move to a better school district, start maxing out those 401ks and look into backdoor Roth IRA/conversions. You need to get that retirement fund number UP fast!

Do you expect your childrens elementary/middle/high school education to pay for your retirement in old age? Didn't think so. Wakeup. Once you have retirement funded closer to $1M you can think about private schools that cost 1/5 of your GROSS income per year. bleh.

[Anonymous]

Just to be clear, when you make in the 400k range through salary and live in Montgomery County about 38% is going to taxes. Through in maxing out on SS, Medicare tax and the new health care tax and other taxes and a good chuck of your income is allocated to the gov't. So 60k for school post tax is a lot more than 60k. Also, if you have two parents working fulltime you usually have to pay extra for care to cover before and after school, summer vacation, and the random days off so that adds a good bit on top of the private school tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live outside DC, but I would love some help trying to figure out if we can afford (or if it is wise to pay) $60K/year to send our two kids to an elite private school. DH and I both work, and our combined income is 300K (with limited increases in the future --I'm a fed; he's a prof). Our 15-year mortgage (in a school district with poor public schools) is $3K and the other expenses are fairly normal (old cars so no car payments, no cable TV, but we have cell phones and "typical" family expenses, such as dance lessons, the occasional meal out, grocery, utilites, etc.). We have around 100K in savings, and about 150K in retirement/401K accounts, and we are in our late 30s. (No family money or inherited money in the picture).

I'm sorry OP, but you said you are both in your late 30s and only have $150k in retirement (combined)!!!???? :O

NO. You cannot afford private ELEMENTARY school. You need to move to a better school district, start maxing out those 401ks and look into backdoor Roth IRA/conversions. You need to get that retirement fund number UP fast!

Do you expect your childrens elementary/middle/high school education to pay for your retirement in old age? Didn't think so. Wakeup. Once you have retirement funded closer to $1M you can think about private schools that cost 1/5 of your GROSS income per year. bleh.

Folks need to chill. Realize that they have the very modest Fed pension and a probably gold-plated university pension for the Prof. Retirement savings are implicitly much higher than they are quoting.

That said. Buy the tiny house on good school district. Then you can build savings and equity to pay for college and give your kids a real advantage.

[Anonymous]

This thread is disgusting. It is no wonder most people are disgusted by overpaid overentitled assholes like OP.m Send your kids to public school and actually spend time with them!

[Anonymous]

What's wrong with your public schools? You do realize that as educated upper middle class professionals, your children will do well at any school, don't you? It appears that you may want to send your kids to a private for the status it gives your family. Not worth it.