NP here. HHI almost $500k, dual-income, both senior individual contributors in the tech industry. Generally worked 80+ hours a week since we were 22 years old, careful to have no debt other than our mortgage.

DH's dad was a jobless alcoholic, mom was a cafeteria worker. My grandpa was a third-world miner with a grade-school education, but all his kids grew up to get graduate degrees, so I grew up comfortably middle-class. But we're getting zero family help and expect to someday support our parents.

$40k/year in private-school tuition is built on the back of years of working our *sses off and likely needing to work into our 70s. Nice house, fairly cheap cars (paid off), lots of books, a yearly purchase of modest artwork, nice meals out, the occasional trip to the symphony/theatre (pre-pandemic), no vacations other than the annual Christmas family get-together (we stay with relatives, not in a hotel). Financial stability and we don't feel stretched, but we only had one kid for a reason. The time and effort we put into our jobs plus parenting doesn't leave room for much in the way of entertainment time anyway. It's certainly not the life we might have envisioned had you told us a few decades back that we would have this kind of HHI.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make somewhere around $350K and only one child, who attends one of the less expensive privates (around $20K). We would not be able to afford this with 2 kids, given our other expenses and lifestyle choices (we live in NW DC, take vacations, etc.).

I'm the PP with one kid. Yes, same here (though we live in MoCo). It's one reason why we made the conscious decision to have one kid. We want to still be able to go on vacations and save for college/retirement, while having flexibility around her schooling.

PP, yes, we also chose one child for lifestyle and parenting reasons--we have busy careers, and more than one kid would mean we'd have to outsource more, which we prefer not to. With two kids we would be back at our neighborhood school, which we liked fine before moving to private for immersion, but we're hearing about challenges during DL.

PP if you're still around, which school did you choose? We're also a one child family looking for a less expensive immersion option, but only seeing parochial, Rochambeau, and WIS (which is not "less expensive"). Our HHI is lower, but $20k would be affordable, particularly once we're done paying student loans in another few years.

PP here, we chose Rochambeau. Plenty of families here like us--upper middle class but not affluent, with one kid or maaybe two (sometimes the second kid is in public/charter). I think that's part of the reason it has a fairly down to earth vibe for a private school--not much extreme wealth, at least that I'm aware of. Not a flashy group of families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

You suppose?

+100
This kills me. If your children get stock from a family business and the quarterly dividends MORE THAN PAY THEIR TUITION you are getting a lot of help. Get a grip, entitled people who have family money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make somewhere around $350K and only one child, who attends one of the less expensive privates (around $20K). We would not be able to afford this with 2 kids, given our other expenses and lifestyle choices (we live in NW DC, take vacations, etc.).

I'm the PP with one kid. Yes, same here (though we live in MoCo). It's one reason why we made the conscious decision to have one kid. We want to still be able to go on vacations and save for college/retirement, while having flexibility around her schooling.

PP, yes, we also chose one child for lifestyle and parenting reasons--we have busy careers, and more than one kid would mean we'd have to outsource more, which we prefer not to. With two kids we would be back at our neighborhood school, which we liked fine before moving to private for immersion, but we're hearing about challenges during DL.

PP if you're still around, which school did you choose? We're also a one child family looking for a less expensive immersion option, but only seeing parochial, Rochambeau, and WIS (which is not "less expensive"). Our HHI is lower, but $20k would be affordable, particularly once we're done paying student loans in another few years.

Anonymous wrote: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.

You suppose?

Onlyfans

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people on here saying how it is so hard with salaries of 200-400K.
LOOOOOOOOOOOL

With one kid, you can send them to private with a HHI of under 200K if you are not obsessed with having a giant house, flashy cars, and heaps of junk. You simply have to make it a priority, downsize your house if you need to. Not everyone considers this a priority, and most people here only seem to send their kids to good schools when after they buy a bunch of other crap. To each his own though, and that may not be something they feel is worthwhile. But you can definitely send 2 kids to private on 200K if you make it a priority.

Can you do the math because I’m not seeing it.

Not PP, but it’s all in the mortgage - we send one kid to private with no FA in an income less than $200k. We live in a working class ‘burb (safe, on the MARC) where you can buy a house for $300k. My monthly house payment is $1,500. Leaves a lot of room in the budget for other stuff. The local public schools have serious challenges, so housing is cheap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One word -- grandparents

+1

Us as well.

And from what I can tell, at least one third of our school...

Gross

If you think grandparents are gross, you belong in public.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One word -- grandparents

+1

Us as well.

And from what I can tell, at least one third of our school...

Gross

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people on here saying how it is so hard with salaries of 200-400K.
LOOOOOOOOOOOL

With one kid, you can send them to private with a HHI of under 200K if you are not obsessed with having a giant house, flashy cars, and heaps of junk. You simply have to make it a priority, downsize your house if you need to. Not everyone considers this a priority, and most people here only seem to send their kids to good schools when after they buy a bunch of other crap. To each his own though, and that may not be something they feel is worthwhile. But you can definitely send 2 kids to private on 200K if you make it a priority.

Can you do the math because I’m not seeing it.

Maybe closer to 400 but not the other end.

Anonymous wrote:The people on here saying how it is so hard with salaries of 200-400K.
LOOOOOOOOOOOL

With one kid, you can send them to private with a HHI of under 200K if you are not obsessed with having a giant house, flashy cars, and heaps of junk. You simply have to make it a priority, downsize your house if you need to. Not everyone considers this a priority, and most people here only seem to send their kids to good schools when after they buy a bunch of other crap. To each his own though, and that may not be something they feel is worthwhile. But you can definitely send 2 kids to private on 200K if you make it a priority.

Can you do the math because I’m not seeing it.

The people on here saying how it is so hard with salaries of 200-400K.
LOOOOOOOOOOOL

With one kid, you can send them to private with a HHI of under 200K if you are not obsessed with having a giant house, flashy cars, and heaps of junk. You simply have to make it a priority, downsize your house if you need to. Not everyone considers this a priority, and most people here only seem to send their kids to good schools when after they buy a bunch of other crap. To each his own though, and that may not be something they feel is worthwhile. But you can definitely send 2 kids to private on 200K if you make it a priority.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

Plenty of people get by on that income. Most of them are not paying $40k in private school tuition.The thread is about how people afford private school. If you are able to afford private school on that income, good for you.

It's called parochial school, buying an affordable house (hint: over half a million isn't affordable), and, idk, not spending ridiculously? Have you all not heard of Aldi? Paying cash for used cars? If I was making $400k a year, I genuinely do not know how I could spend it.

You wouldn’t limit yourself to a 500K house and Aldi. You live within and up to your means. We make close to $1M per year. Pay almost $80K in private school tuitions. Live in a $1.5M house. Play golf at a top club. Don’t shop at Aldi. We worked our asses off to get here and to stay here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One word -- grandparents

+1

Us as well.

And from what I can tell, at least one third of our school...

Two words: white privilege. The truth is most minority families can’t rely on mommy and daddy’s money to attend private school.

The phrase "white privilege" is growing old already. It doesn't explain everything in life. You really need to target your anger on Bezos, Zuckerberg, Buffet, and Dimon, etc. You're attacking people of roughly the same class as you because they are doing slightly better financially and making different choices than you. Redirect your anger elsewhere.

Yes, my son's mommy and daddy are paying for his LS. He's under 10 y/o - difficult to be self-made at that age. And before you start about my being born w a silver spoon in my mouth - think again. I was a latchkey kid of a single mom who attending junior college while I was in upper ES and MS and finished her BS while I was in HS. She went to law school when I went to college. I watched her bust her arse and tried to work even hard than she did. Took FA loans, the whole bit, and somehow overcame the odds with some luck, some mentoring, and some hard work. So go away with the privilege argument. It's stale.

As my black dad used to say, if you are poor and white, you are either dumb or lazy. Pick one. That’s why your mother came from the background she did. Her parents (your grandparents) are to blame.

Your dad was a fool then.

Yeah, only dumb lazy people were poor during the Great Depression if they were white. That doesn't seem racist at all.

Someone is just trolling for Vladimir

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One word -- grandparents

+1

Us as well.

And from what I can tell, at least one third of our school...

Two words: white privilege. The truth is most minority families can’t rely on mommy and daddy’s money to attend private school.

The phrase "white privilege" is growing old already. It doesn't explain everything in life. You really need to target your anger on Bezos, Zuckerberg, Buffet, and Dimon, etc. You're attacking people of roughly the same class as you because they are doing slightly better financially and making different choices than you. Redirect your anger elsewhere.

Yes, my son's mommy and daddy are paying for his LS. He's under 10 y/o - difficult to be self-made at that age. And before you start about my being born w a silver spoon in my mouth - think again. I was a latchkey kid of a single mom who attending junior college while I was in upper ES and MS and finished her BS while I was in HS. She went to law school when I went to college. I watched her bust her arse and tried to work even hard than she did. Took FA loans, the whole bit, and somehow overcame the odds with some luck, some mentoring, and some hard work. So go away with the privilege argument. It's stale.

As my black dad used to say, if you are poor and white, you are either dumb or lazy. Pick one. That’s why your mother came from the background she did. Her parents (your grandparents) are to blame.

Your dad was a fool then.

Yeah, only dumb lazy people were poor during the Great Depression if they were white. That doesn't seem racist at all.