Reply to Budgeting for Private School -- Convince my spouse

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So we have a disagreement on whether we should continue private school, coming down to how to afford it and not have to sacrifice travel (which is very important to my spouse for both visiting family as well as exposing our kids to the world)

So the biggest concern is that we will have to reduce vacation travel and not be saving enough for college.

Here's our budget, and I'm posting it here because I want the Independent school perspective; money forum will surely tear this stuff apart.  We have 3 kids, though they will only be in private school 2 at time because of the age difference; we will have college costs along with private school, but at that point loans would be an option.  House is an old crummy house with an addition, which is nice enough but expensive because it is close in with "good" schools which we now realize are circling the drain.

[b]We have considered moving, but house prices have gone up so much in places that we think would be better options and it just seems insurrmountable [/b]and we aren't even sure public schools are actually better there (we hear a lot of bad news about FCPS, MCPS, APS on this forum, so hard to tell what is truth)  Kids are thriving at private, so we are reluctant to rock the boat.

Take home Income	$20,040
	
House	-$5,100
Extended Day	-$300
Life Insurance	-$200
Music Lessons	-$456
Internet	-$50
Mobile	-$300
Private School	-$5,667
	
----------------------------
Fixed Total	-$12,139
----------------------------
	
Home Repair	-$1,167
Streaming	-$40
Groceries	-$1,500
Camps	-$500
Kids Activities	-$167
Cleaner	-$300
Cars	-$200
Utils	-$375
Med	-$133
Shop Misc	-$625
	
----------------------------
Discretionary Total	-$5,007
----------------------------

Holidays	-$250
Vacation	-$667
Beach Week	-$417
	
----------------------------
Travel Total	-$1,333
----------------------------
	
----------------------------
Net Savings	$1,561
----------------------------
[/quote]

[b]You're going to pay far more in tuition payments than you would be in extra mortgage payments [/b][/quote]

+1  Theoretically, based on this budget, OP could spend up to 10.6k on mortgage payments (disclaimer: I am not advising this course of action).  Bet you could get good public schools with that budget!  And the mortgage won't increase 3-5%/year.[/quote]

That would be on a cash flow basis yes, but that is signing up for a 30-year mortgage, and of course if housing prices fall we could be very vulnerable.

Our current home we purchased for $1.2M; so if we sell we think we could swing a $1.6M house. So suggest a top school district with move in ready 4-bedroom SFH for $1.6M with short commute to capital hill (we go in 3x week).  And then we can discuss if that school district is actually performing -- we hear a lot of grief from all public school districts, and we how they are not really concerned about the high achieving students and kind of leave them to their own devices these days.[/quote]

The point is you could go higher than $1.6 because you're currently throwing almost $6k/month at school.  And it doesn't make much sense that a thirty year mortgage would unsettle you right after you stated you're planning to work until your 70s to make up for your low savings rate now.  You can sell and downsize when your last kid goes to college and recapture some of that expense, but you can never get back the ~$70k/year you're spending on private schools.

Your comment about how good schools aren't actually good anyway tells me that you're not really open to a solution other than your preferred private school. 
[/quote]

At current rates, a $1.7M would be $2k/month more which is about a wash for the total we spend on tuition for all 3 kids over the timespan we are considering.[/quote]

It's only a wash if you think your $1.7 house would be worth $1.2 or less when your youngest kid graduates.[/quote]

It very well could be.  With WFH DC could become Detroit for all we know. [/quote]

Please tell me this isn't OP.  How can you simultaneously take the position that you absolutely must have a home with a quick convenient commute to downtown, but also no one will live in DC in 10 years?[/quote]

Haha, my industry is just really slow to change, so I know I'll be commuting downtown, even as everyone else moves to Florida to WFH :) - OP[/quote]

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