We make half of what you do and send our kids to private..not a top private but a mid price range private. For us it was a good decision. You aren't going to know. I can usully can get a good vibe from a school pretty quickly.

we are in the "best" FCPS area and send our kids to private.....for us, it was definitely worth it. but my list of criteria may be different from others. It's definitely a hit to the pocket book for us, but it's why I do not have a walk-in closet

Visit a few private schools and the public schools you're considering. It will help you see where your kids fit best.

Stay in Old Town if you like it and send your kids to Burgundy Farm, a really wonderful private school that I wish I'd sent my kids to.

How can we tell you if it's a good use of your money? It depends on the child and the school and your family's priorities.

OP here. Thanks for all your replies.

My question was not so much about affordability - as many of you have pointed out I can. It was more question of is it a good use of my money and given that FCPS schools are good is it worth it?

Im guessing no from all the answers

Anonymous wrote:You can afford it. As to whether your child will be well served in either a private or "good" public school is another matter entirely.

And what is good for child a may not be good for child b.

I would worry less about the money and more about what your children need in terms of a good education.

This this this.

You can afford it. As to whether your child will be well served in either a private or "good" public school is another matter entirely.

And what is good for child a may not be good for child b.

I would worry less about the money and more about what your children need in terms of a good education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I wouldn't. Would have to make double that amount to even consider it.

I guess you don't value a good education.

Not the PP, but I do make double the OP, AND value a good education, which is why I send my child to one of the best MCPS schools. I also had a child in private school.. They both got/are getting excellent educations. One was better suited for private school, one for public school.

But that's not the point (and the other first PP missed it too). The notion that in order to "even consider" paying $80k per year for public school a family has to have a HHI of $800,000 is ridiculous.

Just buy your million dollar mortgage free house in a good school district and go public.

You obviously can afford it, but is affording enough of a reason to choose private school? In this area, there are plenty of neighborhoods you can also afford that have excellent public schools. You have to figure out if moving to them is something you want to do or if staying in your current neighborhood is what you want to do.

Look - there are good reasons to choose either public or private around here. If your are asking if you can afford it with a net worth of $3M with a 400k income, you are a complete idiot.

The investment income alone on your massive net worth should cover it. Let's see... 2% of 3M = $60k a year. WTF!!!

Congrats on letting us know how rich you are.

In this area, if your kids are reasonably smart and engaged, private schools may not offer better quality of education than some good public schools.
Of course you would need to buy a house in the good school districts. But then again, with your level of HHI it won't be an issue.

Of course you can afford it. I net 9k and I pay for private and it's fine. What is money for if not this?

Anonymous wrote:This thread is confusing the heck out of me. Like the OP, my family has a HHI of 400k, but our net worth is only about $1 million. I thought we were definitely in a range where we could send our daughter to private school. Am I wrong about that?

You can definitely swing it. And OP could easily afford it too (and I'd suspect would be wealthier than at least 50% of the other private school families). There are people who claim they'd "never" send their kids to private. I have a feeling that if money were no object, many of these people would change their tune. And the PP who says they would need $800K to justify private school is seriously crazy.

If there is one thing you'll never regret spending your money on, it's your children's education. Seriously, we make sacrifices to afford it but it's the best money we spend.