How do you afford private school?

[Anonymous]

We can’t, really. We’re at a special needs private, though, and we get a tax break because the tuition is considered a medical expense.

[Anonymous]

We pay $25k in tuition and make $230k. One kid helps, as does having a house that’s in the bottom 10% of price/size in our neighborhood. Have a 15 year old car and only stay at hotels or fly for vacation if we are redeeming credit card points or miles from DH’s work travel. We often naively assume everyone at our cheap-ish private school is like us and I feel silly every time I get a reminder that’s not the case, like finding out that someone lives in a $4M house or that their “part-time, at-home job” is managing a huge family foundation. We are trying our best but it is hard, especially since so much right now takes place against the non-neutral backdrop of home.

[Anonymous]

Small house, small mortgage, not extravagant lifestyle and 1 child. That’s how we do it.

[Anonymous]

We make north of 1 million per year. Saved for years before. No family help. No family help with our college or grad school tuition, either. We have been very fortunate.

[Anonymous]

My children received stock in our family business from their grandparents when they were born, the quarterly dividends more than pay their tuition and the rest goes to their 529s. So I suppose that's considered tuition from their grandparents. We are civil servants and live a comfortable life with government salaries but couldn't afford this school on our GS salaries.

[Anonymous]

A lot of children at my kids' school are from World Bank families. World Bank pays their tuition. As for our family, both DH and I work at well-paying jobs and didn't buy a fancy house and don't drive fancy cars. We often fantasize about the house and lifestyle we could have if we weren't shelling out nearly $100,000 a year after taxes for private. But after having one kid in public school this past spring, we quickly realized how worth it private school is. There was a vast difference in distance learning between our younger child's private and older child's MCPS school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of children at my kids' school are from World Bank families. World Bank pays their tuition. As for our family, both DH and I work at well-paying jobs and didn't buy a fancy house and don't drive fancy cars. We often fantasize about the house and lifestyle we could have if we weren't shelling out nearly $100,000 a year after taxes for private. But after having one kid in public school this past spring, we quickly realized how worth it private school is. There was a vast difference in distance learning between our younger child's private and older child's MCPS school.

This is only true for people hired at the World Bank before 1998. Most of those people don't have school aged kids any more or, at best, have high school aged kids. People hired after 1998 don't get tuition allowance. IMF still provides a tuition subsidy, however.

[Anonymous]

Catholic school and it's around $17K per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meant to add, we applied late because of covid but friends who applied to larger schools during the regular cycle got significant financial aid. It doesn't hurt to apply.

OP here, if you do not mind me asking, is the financial aid similar to what one would receive for college? Or more significant? Trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to apply with a 200k salary (although that is before taxes) for aid for two kids or they will laugh me out of the door.

Former director of financial aid here. 2 kids at 200k is definitely in the range for financial aid, at least In high cost of living areas like DC. Apply OP.

What about 1 kid in the 180k range?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make $400k and pay $47k for one child. It's painful and we often wonder what the heck we're doing. Also--tuition goes up by $1500-3K a year. Most schools had a reprieve in tuition increase this year due to Covid but I'm sure a large increase is coming next year for all schools. Also, various fees and many donation requests (we donate small amounts) tack on another few thousand per year.
Our income level is pretty rare at the school.

That’s under 12% of your annual income, which is pretty reasonable. I’m having a hard time understanding how that is a hardship.

400k income is rare?

Are you implying that it is in the richer side or poor side of the average.

We make 7 figures and sometimes look around and feel poor compared to some of the parents in our school.

I'm the poster you replied to.

Rare as in poor. At 400K we are definitely income for this private. Which is crazy of course as we are upper middle class in any other context. But the wealth at the top privates is insane as you too (feeling "poor" at 7 figures) can attest.

Same. Over $420k HHI, one kid, feel on the lower end money-wise of our private school environment. Which is ridiculous - the good news is we could care less about keeping up with the Jones’s. We’re there because the schools our DC is zoned for all stink and we want DC to have a great education (that by the way, we didn’t get - no legacy or family money here nor grandparent help).

[Anonymous]

With 400k+ income, pp should have around 250K after tax? Minus 100K tuition, pp should have 150K leftover, which means 12,500 for each month. Minus 5000 mortgage, still has 7500 for daily life. Is that too little?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not very familiar with private schools and I just had a question about affordability. I’m seeing tuitions in the 30k-40k range. If you have more than one child, is it just folks making an excess of $400k that go there or is the financial aid similar to college? Our gross income is just under 200k and we have two kids, but after taxes and then mortgage and other expenses, I can’t fathom being able to swing an extra 60-80k for school. How do you guys make it work?

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With 400k+ income, pp should have around 250K after tax? Minus 100K tuition, pp should have 150K leftover, which means 12,500 for each month. Minus 5000 mortgage, still has 7500 for daily life. Is that too little?

Mortgage is typically higher, but also add property taxes, insurances, savings - both retirement and college.

[Anonymous]

also student loans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With 400k+ income, pp should have around 250K after tax? Minus 100K tuition, pp should have 150K leftover, which means 12,500 for each month. Minus 5000 mortgage, still has 7500 for daily life. Is that too little?

Mortgage is typically higher, but also add property taxes, insurances, savings - both retirement and college.

As they say, your biggest expense is “Miscellaneous”...