Anonymous wrote:you could easily, easily do it on 400k.
we have HHI (single income) of $225k and easily afford one 25k tuition. Add in another $175 pre taxes and we could afford another 2 kids in private.
Mortgage is about $3500/month all included. No other debt.

Those needing $500k are living luxuriously, not comfortably.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP didn't ask if it could be done for less. She asked where it would be comfortable. I think below $500K you have to cut costs significantly somewhere, although if you don't both work that changes the calculus considerably because you need less outside help and have time to shop for better and cheaper alternatives to what is quickest to buy/order. It depends on the particular circumstances of the family in question.

What costs would you have to cut if you only had $300,000? Yes, you might have to sell the beach house, but not if you never bought one to start with.

We have a HHI of $300,000, and I don't see how we could possibly send two kids to private school comfortably. Our mortgage is $4500 (which affords us a nice, but not extravagent, house), we have no car payments, no school debt and NO BEACH HOUSE (I wish!). After taxes, health insurance, bills, approx. $1800/month for our pt nanny (so I can work), savings for college and retirement, and a comfortable- think no fancy trips, but we don't watch our pennies on things like food- living, there's not much (if any) left over at the end of the month. Once we no longer had the nanny, we could probably manage to send one child to private school without having to make too many sacrifices. But to come come with an extra $30,000/year after taxes to send the second one would require a major lifestyle adjustment like moving to a smaller house and/or not saving a penny for college and retirement. I wouldn't consider this "comfortable."

It is kind of ridiculous to think that with a HHI of $300K, you can't find $30K to send your child to private school (if you wanted). You are over-spending somewhere. We earn $230K and send one to private ($30K) and live comfortably. I'm guessing that the difference is in housing. We bought small, but close in, so our mortgage is under $3500, and we don't have a nanny. We use after-care, which is much cheaper. I think that with two children, I would want to add an additional $75K (private school, college savings, etc.) to our HHI.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Comfortable? Not penny pinching? $500K. At this level you can still save some, carry a decent sized mortgage, buy the kids whatever clothes you deem reasonable, comfortably pay for any and all extracurriculars they want, keep an appropriate level of "outsourcing" if you both work, and buy yourselves decent clothes and decent cars (and take decent vacations). That's not to say you won't notice the missing $60K a year that goes for tuition. You will.

It completely depends on the family and circumstances, of course.

I agree. 500K sounds about right. We make a bit more than half of that amount and it was really, really hard to do. We ended up pulling our children out of private school this year. It was a hard decision and there were even some tears, but on the end I think we did the right thing.

I was the biggest private school advocate and thought that our children would go through private school from PK-12th grade, no question about it. I was willing to sacrifice, eat mac and cheese everyday, and wear the same clothes for 10 years. When I first went to visit the public school our children attend now, I tried to find EVERY excuse in the book as to why it wasn't good enough for us. There wasn't enough recess (40 minutes as opposed to 1.5 hours), the classrooms were smaller, the testing, etc., etc. etc. My husband loved the school and wanted our children to go there starting in K, but he gave in to me and we stuck with private. When we visited private schools everything was hunky dory in my book and I found no faults because I didn't want to see any faults. Now that I am a bit older and a bit wiser, I realize the truth is that no school is perfect.

My children still have art twice a week, PE twice a week, music twice a week, and library once a week in their public school. They have 20 children and two teachers in their classrooms. We have the time to play more with children in our neighborhood.

The best part is that I am able to stay home (I was working in a low paying, yet fulfilling field before) and I feel like I know much more about what is going on in my children's lives. I take them to school every morning, greet them at the bus at the end of the day, we can do after school activities, and we are eating much healthier because I actually have time to cook. In addition, we are so much less stressed financially. We are saving more, donating more, and are simply in a much better state of financial "health."

In closing, there are some wonderful private schools out there. We loved our old school and our children grew so much while they were there. However, there are really, really great public school options, as well. In the end you need to make the best decision for your family.

20 kids with two teachers? Which public school is this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP didn't ask if it could be done for less. She asked where it would be comfortable. I think below $500K you have to cut costs significantly somewhere, although if you don't both work that changes the calculus considerably because you need less outside help and have time to shop for better and cheaper alternatives to what is quickest to buy/order. It depends on the particular circumstances of the family in question.

What costs would you have to cut if you only had $300,000? Yes, you might have to sell the beach house, but not if you never bought one to start with.

We have a HHI of $300,000, and I don't see how we could possibly send two kids to private school comfortably. Our mortgage is $4500 (which affords us a nice, but not extravagent, house), we have no car payments, no school debt and NO BEACH HOUSE (I wish!). After taxes, health insurance, bills, approx. $1800/month for our pt nanny (so I can work), savings for college and retirement, and a comfortable- think no fancy trips, but we don't watch our pennies on things like food- living, there's not much (if any) left over at the end of the month. Once we no longer had the nanny, we could probably manage to send one child to private school without having to make too many sacrifices. But to come come with an extra $30,000/year after taxes to send the second one would require a major lifestyle adjustment like moving to a smaller house and/or not saving a penny for college and retirement. I wouldn't consider this "comfortable."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Comfortable? Not penny pinching? $500K. At this level you can still save some, carry a decent sized mortgage, buy the kids whatever clothes you deem reasonable, comfortably pay for any and all extracurriculars they want, keep an appropriate level of "outsourcing" if you both work, and buy yourselves decent clothes and decent cars (and take decent vacations). That's not to say you won't notice the missing $60K a year that goes for tuition. You will.

It completely depends on the family and circumstances, of course.

I agree. 500K sounds about right. We make a bit more than half of that amount and it was really, really hard to do. We ended up pulling our children out of private school this year. It was a hard decision and there were even some tears, but on the end I think we did the right thing.

I was the biggest private school advocate and thought that our children would go through private school from PK-12th grade, no question about it. I was willing to sacrifice, eat mac and cheese everyday, and wear the same clothes for 10 years. When I first went to visit the public school our children attend now, I tried to find EVERY excuse in the book as to why it wasn't good enough for us. There wasn't enough recess (40 minutes as opposed to 1.5 hours), the classrooms were smaller, the testing, etc., etc. etc. My husband loved the school and wanted our children to go there starting in K, but he gave in to me and we stuck with private. When we visited private schools everything was hunky dory in my book and I found no faults because I didn't want to see any faults. Now that I am a bit older and a bit wiser, I realize the truth is that no school is perfect.

My children still have art twice a week, PE twice a week, music twice a week, and library once a week in their public school. They have 20 children and two teachers in their classrooms. We have the time to play more with children in our neighborhood.

The best part is that I am able to stay home (I was working in a low paying, yet fulfilling field before) and I feel like I know much more about what is going on in my children's lives. I take them to school every morning, greet them at the bus at the end of the day, we can do after school activities, and we are eating much healthier because I actually have time to cook. In addition, we are so much less stressed financially. We are saving more, donating more, and are simply in a much better state of financial "health."

In closing, there are some wonderful private schools out there. We loved our old school and our children grew so much while they were there. However, there are really, really great public school options, as well. In the end you need to make the best decision for your family.

Anonymous wrote:Comfortable? Not penny pinching? $500K. At this level you can still save some, carry a decent sized mortgage, buy the kids whatever clothes you deem reasonable, comfortably pay for any and all extracurriculars they want, keep an appropriate level of "outsourcing" if you both work, and buy yourselves decent clothes and decent cars (and take decent vacations). That's not to say you won't notice the missing $60K a year that goes for tuition. You will.

It completely depends on the family and circumstances, of course.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP didn't ask if it could be done for less. She asked where it would be comfortable. I think below $500K you have to cut costs significantly somewhere, although if you don't both work that changes the calculus considerably because you need less outside help and have time to shop for better and cheaper alternatives to what is quickest to buy/order. It depends on the particular circumstances of the family in question.

What costs would you have to cut if you only had $300,000? Yes, you might have to sell the beach house, but not if you never bought one to start with.