Anonymous
08/20/2023 15:28
Subject: How do people afford it?
We have low debt and a decent amount of retirement savings. Tuition is going to prevent us from ensuring the kids are 100% taken care of financially but we balance that against their future capacity to take care of themselves.
In other words, it's a sacrifice that we make which might not be the best financial decision but does, in our opinion, invest in the decision making capacity of our kids. The hope is that while there will be less they will be better prepared to make good decisions with what they'll have.
That being said, prices are close to the maximum of what we can handle.
In other words, it's a sacrifice that we make which might not be the best financial decision but does, in our opinion, invest in the decision making capacity of our kids. The hope is that while there will be less they will be better prepared to make good decisions with what they'll have.
That being said, prices are close to the maximum of what we can handle.
Anonymous
08/20/2023 10:41
Subject: How do people afford it?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Very frankly we make more than twice the HHI you do and have half the mortgage. I don’t say it to brag. It’s just that I agree it would be tough in your financial situation. A shocking number of families are really relying on grandparents to make it work.
Yep. We have $530K left on our mortgage and our HHI is $1.1M. We have one kid. Even with two, we’d be fine in large part because we chose to not become house poor and pushed for lucrative careers.
Part of this is timing. I’m also not house poor, but I recognize a lot of it is luck in terms of timing. If I had to move to an urban area now with 2 kids, I’d likely be house poor.
Anonymous
08/20/2023 10:29
Subject: How do people afford it?
How do people afford private jets? It’s called wealth …
Anonymous
08/20/2023 10:21
Subject: How do people afford it?
OP, we have the same professions but with only one kid. Even with FA it's tight. We often talk about how we can manage with one, but if we had two kids, private wouldn't be an option. It's been worth it, but I won't say it's been easy. Good luck.
Anonymous
08/19/2023 21:30
Subject: How do people afford it?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This board should be renamed "Moanings of the insufferables"
I mean, it is crazy that we can make so much and yet still have to consider the trade offs of private vs public education.
My parents cannot fathom the environment here: my parents sent 3 to private (catholic) schools /at the same time/ on a HHI around 110 (no FA) in a major Midwest city not that long ago.
The real play these days seems to be working remote and moving to an area where costs aren’t as… elevated.
Yeah, we’d love that. Where could you tolerate that also has good, free schools?
Anonymous
08/19/2023 21:10
Subject: How do people afford it?
Anonymous wrote:This board should be renamed "Moanings of the insufferables"
I mean, it is crazy that we can make so much and yet still have to consider the trade offs of private vs public education.
My parents cannot fathom the environment here: my parents sent 3 to private (catholic) schools /at the same time/ on a HHI around 110 (no FA) in a major Midwest city not that long ago.
The real play these days seems to be working remote and moving to an area where costs aren’t as… elevated.
Anonymous
08/19/2023 12:28
Subject: How do people afford it?
Anonymous wrote:We make around $450k and manage to pay 2 tuitions with some family help, but when I look around my kids classes what’s obvious is that many families are just very wealthy. Large homes in Potomac or McLean plus summer homes, fancy vacations, very expensive cars, pricey country clubs. If you want to feel kind of poor with an income of $450k in dc just enroll your kids in a top private school.
Yes. The reality, OP, is some of us have a lot of money. Not all of us, but some do.
We are wealthy, but not as wealthy as others at DD’s school.
Anonymous
08/19/2023 12:11
Subject: How do people afford it?
We make around $450k and manage to pay 2 tuitions with some family help, but when I look around my kids classes what’s obvious is that many families are just very wealthy. Large homes in Potomac or McLean plus summer homes, fancy vacations, very expensive cars, pricey country clubs. If you want to feel kind of poor with an income of $450k in dc just enroll your kids in a top private school.
Anonymous
08/19/2023 12:04
Subject: How do people afford it?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I’m a fed, DH works at a non-profit. We make 310 combined. 750k mortgage. No other debt. We want to send our two kids private, but at $40-50k a year per kid it doesn’t seem possible. Is there anyone in our situation that actually found a way to make this work?
That’s not big city white collar income. Nothing more, nothing else.
Fortunately there is aid, good public schools, lower cost Catholic schools too. It could be worse Op.
I have similar income to you OP with a smaller mortgage and we can swing it for our only child, but definitely feel the pinch. We don’t feel we can afford the 50k independents, and we definitely wouldn’t be able to pay for two.
Anonymous
08/19/2023 11:58
Subject: How do people afford it?
Anonymous wrote:Very frankly we make more than twice the HHI you do and have half the mortgage. I don’t say it to brag. It’s just that I agree it would be tough in your financial situation. A shocking number of families are really relying on grandparents to make it work.
Yep. We have $530K left on our mortgage and our HHI is $1.1M. We have one kid. Even with two, we’d be fine in large part because we chose to not become house poor and pushed for lucrative careers.
Anonymous
08/19/2023 10:29
Subject: How do people afford it?
This board should be renamed "Moanings of the insufferables"
Anonymous
08/12/2023 02:43
Subject: How do people afford it?
Anonymous wrote:We have a HHI of 450-460… some of it is tax free so hard to calculate the exact amount (330 take home). We have 3 kids in private 2 at 42-50k schools and one at a 34k school, but will join siblings to more expensive school next year.
We are very tight, but we are still able to pay for extra curricular activities, save for retirement and vacations (not expensive ones). We also still pay for a nanny for my youngest for one more year (we will stop once he is in K).
We pay for what is important to us. Some of that income is reimbursement for private school (about 60k after taxes) so we have an incentive. Our income should grow a bit 20% or so in the next couple of years, but thatMs about it.
We watch what we spend a lot and don’t save much (other than retirement).
Not sure we could manage it with anything less. Our mortgage is 3.5k/month
Your money isn't tight, you just live a very comfortable lifestyle.
Anonymous
08/12/2023 02:41
Subject: How do people afford it?
We have a HHI of 450-460… some of it is tax free so hard to calculate the exact amount (330 take home). We have 3 kids in private 2 at 42-50k schools and one at a 34k school, but will join siblings to more expensive school next year.
We are very tight, but we are still able to pay for extra curricular activities, save for retirement and vacations (not expensive ones). We also still pay for a nanny for my youngest for one more year (we will stop once he is in K).
We pay for what is important to us. Some of that income is reimbursement for private school (about 60k after taxes) so we have an incentive. Our income should grow a bit 20% or so in the next couple of years, but thatMs about it.
We watch what we spend a lot and don’t save much (other than retirement).
Not sure we could manage it with anything less. Our mortgage is 3.5k/month
We are very tight, but we are still able to pay for extra curricular activities, save for retirement and vacations (not expensive ones). We also still pay for a nanny for my youngest for one more year (we will stop once he is in K).
We pay for what is important to us. Some of that income is reimbursement for private school (about 60k after taxes) so we have an incentive. Our income should grow a bit 20% or so in the next couple of years, but thatMs about it.
We watch what we spend a lot and don’t save much (other than retirement).
Not sure we could manage it with anything less. Our mortgage is 3.5k/month
Anonymous
08/11/2023 22:11
Subject: How do people afford it?
We found one for 25 and managed it, but just barely.
Anonymous
08/11/2023 21:38
Subject: How do people afford it?
Anonymous wrote:^ I wouldn't send my kids to just HS or elementary though I would send them MS and HS or Elementary and MS. I think MS is key because that's when you learn how to study and if sent to HS based on college you likely would do better in public HS and if they did well in MS why bother with HS pvt? If you do elementary for a strong foundation, you'd want to get through MS too as then by HS they will fly on their own in any setting. I think ultimately MS years is key because that's also when you start knowing what your kid is really like and they know themselves better too.
We moved our kid to private for MS. We’ll apply out for DC magnets when the time comes, if still local.