Starting at what HHI or net worth would you feel comfortable paying $32k private school tuition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think I'd ever be comfortable paying $32K for a private school.

$32K a year gets you an extra $650,000 on your mortgage. Assuming you can afford a $600,000 house (which I hope you could if you're considering spending $32K on private school) there's nowhere in the area you couldn't get a $1.25 million house with great public schools.

And if you can already afford a $1.25 million house, an extra $32K goes a long way for retirement, family vacations, college savings, and other things that I personally think are a much better use of money than private school.

I’d rather my kid have an amazing education than live in an amazing house and go on amazing vacations. Everyone makes their own choices and that’s fine.

[Anonymous]

OP asked about comfort, not ability. Our HHI is around $470K, and even with just one child, and just for HS, we have rejected the idea. Could we pay for it? Sure. Would it be the best decision for us? No. Partly because we're self-funding all of our retirement (no 401K matches, no pensions, no expected inheritance). We can't say for sure that we could do without that $140K invested over the next 20 years. If we needed to send DC to a special needs school, then the calculus would be different. But the advantages of private over the excellent publics here in the DMV are not large enough to justify the cost (which here would be more like $42K/year).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make 400k and would never send my kids to private. I think I'd have to be making about 1 million to stomach private. Like, I definitely need a lambo in the garage if I'm going to be throwing around money like that

I make about a quarter of what you do, but agree. Under no circumstances would i ever send my kids to private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS + STA alum here. Private school is dumb, a symptom of brand whore culture, and churns out many brats. Send your kids to Wilson or Whitman or BCC or whatever. 32k a year is idiotic and I’m shocked my parents spent that (wasn’t as much back when I went on a nominal basis but probably was basically equivalent).

As a public school teacher I actually have my kids in private. Much has changed since we were in school. What I see on a daily basis is disturbing and the absurd curriculum I'm shackled to is truly awful. I only remain teaching in public schools because I have a lot invested in my retirement benefits and I hope to at least make some sort of impact. The difference between what kids get in the right private school vs the best public school is not even a contest.

All of my income goes to tuition. However I have a high earner spouse. I do enjoy working and can't think of another job that would give me so much time off (as I sit here on a south Florida beach browsing DCUM). However the state of public schools is truly the pits.

Public school teacher her with a low wage spouse. I hear you loud and clear. I wish we could afford private. It's ugly under the covers.

[Anonymous]

I pull in 305k and I send three to private. 18k, 22k and 15k per annum.
It sucks and I guilt them every time I see them slacking off.
“I paid $3700 for you to take algebra and you can’t even be bothered to do your homework??!”

Funny thing is I graduated HS 4th from the bottom of my class so I find this all incredibly entertaining.

[Anonymous]

We're in the same income range and sending 2 kids to private. We live in a modest house and drive modest cars. If private is something important to you, you make other choices to make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you live over your means. We make $150K or so and we could comfortably do it. You can very easily do it but may need to reconsider your housing options.

OP here. I don't think that you can afford $32k private school on a $150k gross HHI.

I don't want to have to commute one hour to get to the private school, which is close to my office. So for this reason we would like to live closer by, hence the more expensive house.

I KNOW we can as we've done it for a few years as we have a child with SN and who needed therapies. You don't need to move closer or get a more expensive house, you choose to want it. Need vs. want. We live in a very small, cheapest house in the neighborhood at the time we could find and have aggressively paid the mortgage so in a few years it will be paid off. So, in two years it will be paid off (but we could do it now) and we drive older car/paid off car. Its how you spend/manage your money. Your priority is a house and mortgage so no you cannot but you could if you wanted to.

This

[Anonymous]

2 kids in private HS - $42k-$45k each. HHI is $800k-$1M but we don’t have a mortgage as we bought a small house and paid it off. None of our neighbors send their kids to private.

[Anonymous]

We’d rather pay for early education than college. We make $150k and pay $30k for our only. We will be able to help with college too though. You make it work if you think that is a priority.

[Anonymous]

$300K

[Anonymous]

2 kids and make 500k - not there yet. Like someone posted above, I'd need silly money to throw it a k-12 so my kids can be around other rich kids.