Affording Private Schools

[Anonymous]

Since this is an anonymous board, I hope I can get some honest responses to my question!

The WPPSI thread (where the poster wanted to know what it was. I felt like I could have written her first paragraph in that thread)) made me think of another question. How do you afford private school?

I understand if you're wealthy and can easily afford it. I can also understand if you're not so wealthy and can get financial aid. But what about those people who make good livings but earn too much for financial aid but the tuition would still be a burden?

I can understand swinging the payments when you only have one kid, but what do you do with two or more kids? Plus, factor in mortgage payments, saving for college, saving for retirement, daily living expenses.

How do you do it?

[Anonymous]

This is a great post; I am hopeful that parents with children currently in private school respond.

Also, parents receiving financial aid please share the amount of financial aid you receive, the number of children in private school, how much SSS said you could afford to pay, and your estimated annual income.

Thank - you

[Anonymous]

Hi-
We are in the boat of making too much for finacial aid, but are not wealthy by any standards.

We are hoping to send out daughter to nursery at a private school in DC (if she gets in) next year. Financially, this is how we are going to swing it...

*Stay in our smallish house
*One car- a hybrid to save on gas
*Try to cook at home as much as possible during the week. Takeout is killing our budget AND our waistlines!!
*Eat lunch at home with the kids- $15 at the Bagel Shop 2-3 times a week adds up FAST!!
*Cut back on money we spend on Music Together, ballet, etc. and try to find any and all free events or really cheap events to take our kids to
*Really watch out for impulse buys- I always get suckered in at Target
*Work hard at growing my business a bit more which will help

[Anonymous]

What income is considered too much when seeking financial aid?????

[Anonymous]

21:21 Wow, I don't want that!

[Anonymous]

We spent almost 3K a month on nannies in the first few years - now that DC is in school, we no longer need a nanny and that money is going to tuition.

[Anonymous]

Its interesting that PP mentioned the cost for a nanny, becasue by my calculation if you have one child and a full-time nanny you will actually save money once they start going to private school - this is true even for the most expensive Schools (Sidwell).

[Anonymous]

but if you have two kids, this is not true anymore...

[Anonymous]

Also, you need to remember that the private school tuition only covers the 9-monthacademic year. It does not cover any childcare you may need for after school, sick days and holidays, or most significantly - all of those summer months.

[Anonymous]

my husband and I actually spent 3 hours this past Sunday working through a personal budget to determine HOW we can afford private school and WHICH private school we can afford. This was not necessarily a fun exercise, but eye opening. we live in a small house in a transitional neighborhood that we really like. The basic fixed...

$160k between us in gross
$2k monthly mortage.
$2200 monthly in nanny
$700 investments, etc
other crazy money on groceries, etc

This will be our first year of private school - kindergarden. we laid everything out and then looked at where we can cut and how we can change our lifestyle

1. re-fi the house about 3k per year.
2. stop smoking - about 2500 per year (yes, I am admitting on line...anonymously)
3. get rid of AOL - about 200 per year
4. reduce our montly payment on a life insurance policy - about 1200 per year

also - we STRICTLY budgeted my shoe allowance and our work suit allowance.

Going through this exercise made us fully aware of how much we spend on take-out, Target and Home Depot...crazy amount of money on stuff I don't even remember. (I had to laugh, five years ago our food bills were wonderful restaurants, less frequently - now it is Qdoba...oh, how our lives change)

this year we are banking on my bonus (about 8k) for the initial down payment for the first year of private school and then we will start accruing about 700 per month for NEX year's tuition. we have pulled away (mentally) a little bit from our first choice private school because it is 4k more than our other choice (other reasons also). we also are working on a longer term budget because DD is three years away from private school, but then we will lose some of the expense of the baby sitter. It is VERY confusing.

I also printed up our "remaining money" after expenses for every month and taped it on the fridge. it makes me painfully aware that I don't need to stroll through Target for entertainment and my kids certainly don't care if their clothes are consignment as opposed to Gymboree.

[Anonymous]

I'm perplexed about the life insurance choice. If private school is so important to you, won't you need that additional insurance payment if you should die?

[Anonymous]

We decided to do that because when we purchased the life insurance policy, hubby did not have this benefit through work. He has changed jobs and this is now included in benefit package, so we are able to reduce his level of benefit, with the balance being made up through his work. We also, in hindsight I think, purchased "high", a bit...

[Anonymous]

thanks everyone for sharing how they are doing it!

17:53 poster - what price range schools are you looking at and what will your budget have to be like when you have two kids in private school? Also, you didn't mention anything about saving for college/retirement or was that part of investing?

[Anonymous]

17:53 here...hubby and I haven't quite gotten that far, BUT we talked a bit about it on sunday. The schools are right around 9k....SO, I think that while DD gets to school that is = 9k, but reduce nanny by 28k (or whatever it is), + nanny share in afternoon (?) The nanny share is up in the air of course, but maybe we will save about 5k or so???..

we contribute 4% each of salary to 401k, with company match. we have a small roth, we have the life insurance that we can borrow against (this is the 600 monthly), we also have recently started 300 monthly with smith barney. We are sort of all over the place as we work to be better about money and have had a tendency to jump in with both feet and then understand what we have done...we also do 500 per month into savings.

so - we're trying, just a bit jumbled about it.

hopefully it is helpful and I'll take anyone else's hints!

[Anonymous]

thanks What school is your DC going to that only costs $9k a year? It seems pretty much all the ones I've seen are around ~20k. Or is that figure only for K?