household income of 250K to send kids to private school

[Anonymous]

What do you think of a family with a household income of 250K to send their two kids to private school? Other than the tuition, do you think socially the kids can fit in? What's the medium income for the families in private schools? Where to find such statistics?

[Anonymous]

Have either of you gone to a private school? What do you wish the child get out of it?

Budget for it and try to see if it is a fit.

Generally at that level of income, it may be financially beneficial to save the money for your retirements and for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you think of a family with a household income of 250K to send their two kids to private school? Other than the tuition, do you think socially the kids can fit in? What's the medium income for the families in private schools? Where to find such statistics?

It depends. If you send two kids to Potomac school HS, it will cost you about 86k/year after tax. Not possible for 250k income.

[Anonymous]

We sent one kid on that joint income, and it wasn’t very easy if you also want to pay for travel soccer, visit far-flung relatives, and so on. We have a decent house, but it’s a fixer-upper in an area where the public schools are so-so, so the mortgage is low. Moreover, this was a $20k well-regarded -on-DCUM independent school, not a $40k school. We would never have received FA for the second kid. We ended up dong magnets for both kids and are pleased with the education relative to a few years in private private school.

[Anonymous]

We would have that income, and we would never even think about it as a possibility.

I'm wondering if you're having grandparents pay for it, and then you're just wondering if they'd fit in socially.

[Anonymous]

I think it would be difficult to send two kids to private school on that income. We send our one kid to a private school (40K) on a similar income, but we don't really have a choice, because he has a learning disability that his public school was having difficulty accommodating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We would have that income, and we would never even think about it as a possibility.

I'm wondering if you're having grandparents pay for it, and then you're just wondering if they'd fit in socially.

I mean we DO have that income, and would never consider it.

[Anonymous]

How old are the kids? Have them start out in public and bank the $80k for few years. See if you can do it. We make $160k and no, we coudln't afford to send even one to private. We might pull it off for high school, but that's 10 years from now, so we have time to save.

[Anonymous]

How old are the kids? Have them start out in public and bank the $80k for few years. See if you can do it. We make $160k and no, we coudln't afford to send even one to private. We might pull it off for high school, but that's 10 years from now, so we have time to save.

[Anonymous]

Parent who transferred kids from private to magnets again.

Make sure you can save for college and retirement.

At $250k you won’t get any FA from colleges unless maybe if your kid gets into Harvard which has the largest endowment. (My kid didn’t qualify for FA at a different top ivy on that income.)

However, your kid may get merit aid with great grades (at some great non-Ivies because Ivies don’t give merit aid).

At your income you’ll also be able to do maybe $2-3,000 per month on a 10-month college tuition payment plan, just like you’d do for a 10-month private school tuition payment plan. That’s about $30k per year out of income for college out of your income. Bear in mind, though, that many private colleges are $60-70k/year these days (and will be more by the time your kid graduates), and out-of-state publics currently run about $55k/year. So unless you are planning for an in-state public, you will need to save for college.

I haven’t even started on retirement income. The good news isn’t that college FA forms don’t include retirement savings in your assets available for college tuition. (Not that you, or we, qualify for FA at most colleges.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent who transferred kids from private to magnets again.

Make sure you can save for college and retirement.

At $250k you won’t get any FA from colleges unless maybe if your kid gets into Harvard which has the largest endowment. (My kid didn’t qualify for FA at a different top ivy on that income.)

However, your kid may get merit aid with great grades (at some great non-Ivies because Ivies don’t give merit aid).

At your income you’ll also be able to do maybe $2-3,000 per month on a 10-month college tuition payment plan, just like you’d do for a 10-month private school tuition payment plan. That’s about $30k per year out of income for college out of your income. Bear in mind, though, that many private colleges are $60-70k/year these days (and will be more by the time your kid graduates), and out-of-state publics currently run about $55k/year. So unless you are planning for an in-state public, you will need to save for college.

I haven’t even started on retirement income. The good news isn’t that college FA forms don’t include retirement savings in your assets available for college tuition. (Not that you, or we, qualify for FA at most colleges.)

PP once again. I think the new tax bill lets you use your 529 for private school (yet another slap at the publics). Yay?

[Anonymous]

You can get financial aid

[Anonymous]

We poor middle income wage slaves. Why is life so unfair to us.

A real cry, not a tongue-in-cheek.

[Anonymous]

We could send one kid to private on $250k (at $40K tuition) but not two.
Another thing to think about is that tuition is rising at the pace of about 1-$2K a year at the top schools. We anticipate our $41K school will be $45K within 3 years and $50K within a few more.

[Anonymous]

We live in upper NW and planned on sending our kid to public school all the way through, but recently switched over to a $20K private for a specific curriculum not available in the public. We make about $350K with only one child, but still feel the pinch. We do some discretionary spending--we like to travel abroad, take ski vacations, etc., so this would be tough on a lower salary while paying for private. YMMV.