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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. I’m not the same poster that talked about having a housekeeper. That is absolutely not us. We clean our own toilets. We rarely eat out and when we do it’s a fast casual spot. We take trips to visit family or day trips that don’t require overnights. Even with that I don’t see how the numbers work out unless we move into an apartment and don’t save for retirement, which perhaps is a choice we could make, but doesn’t seem prudent. I appreciate the replies![/quote]

So it seems like you know your answer. And you probably have known it all along—you can’t make the numbers work. [/quote]

Agree. Not sure how you make it work for two kids with that mortgage payment. 
One strategy might be to consider a career pivot for either/both you and DH to yield higher salaries. 
I left non profit sector for private a few years after having my first kid. Kicking myself I didn’t do it sooner. The salary/bonuses etc are worth it. [/quote]

We're facing this challenge now. $350k HHI, $3200 monthly mortgage. Old cars, paid off. 2 kids currently in public, looking at private, but really reluctant to "sacrifice" jobs we adore -- true unicorn gigs perfectly suited to our personalities, family obligations, and professional aspirations -- for more $$ in private sector gigs guaranteed to be a poorer fit.  If the school upgrade is truly worth it, I'd rather dip into home equity or retirement savings to fund it. But I'm not yet convinced it's truly worth it [/quote]

What grades are the kids in? Do they seem happy? I feel like private school is paying for bottled water if you have good tap water available. [/quote]

Are you my financial advisor? Because if not, you're the second person this week to give me this advice.

Younger kid has one more year at our delightful elementary school before (potentially) joining older sibling at (rather less delightful) middle school. Older kid is happy bc they can coast at this school and do reasonably well. Younger may not have as easy a time academically (unclear what effect pandemic/zoom school had on these delays, but if it did not cause them, it certainly didn't help). I feel like the right private could be worth it for each of them, but the best schools come with unreasonable price tags.

In theory we could take the budget for a more reasonable private school and instead spend it on tutors, supplements, camps, programs etc. But I would probably be the one in charge of arranging and supervising that whole project, and I don't know where to begin. Private also offers the advantage of being a turnkey solution. My dismal failure as a "homeschool mom" during distance learning is not a strong predictor of success at Jerry rigging an academic infrastructure, like so much scaffolding, around the basic product our public school provides.

(We are not Catholic and it seems that most reasonably-priced private schools are, more's the pity.)[/quote]

You probably will do camps and activities outside school regardless of public or private. [/quote]

We do them now, but it's foreseeably much harder to say yes to $5k sleepaway camp if we need to direct that $5k towards tuition.[/quote]

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