People have very different opinions about people with comfortable but not Biglaw-level HHI's paying for private school. For example, our HHI, like many here, is between 400k and 500k. So is our neighbors'. We both have daughters in seventh grade. Our homes are zoned for a decent elementary school and an overcrowded middle school that is on the decline. They thought we were crazy for moving our daughter to private middle school, where she is thriving. They take fancier vacations, are always renovating their house, etc. It's all about what you prioritize. For us, it's giving our daughter the best possible education and keeping her out of an overcrowded middle school. For them, it's enjoying their money with things like vacations. No single choice is right. We did us. They did them.

$225 HHI, $35k/yr for one kid. It’s fine. But if we had a higher mortgage it wouldn’t be - our PITI+HOA is $2400.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI (gross) is approximated $510,000/year (varies slightly with bonus). Two children, one in Big 3 private (started in high school). Younger child in public middle school oldest child attended.

We pay $50,000+ per year (no financial aid and no family help). We have always been amazing savers and the tuition is paid from current income, and a dedicated savings account we set up years ago for private high school. We live well below our means, so we don’t feel financially pinched at all. Our retirement plans and children’s college funds are fully funded. We also take one trip abroad each year.

Your comments are silly. On $500K a year why would you be pinched. You can comfortably send both kids and live your lavish lifestyle.

They can afford it, but I don’t think it would be a luxurious lifestyle. That is about 250k takehome. If both kids are in private, that’s 100k of the 250k. Yes, people can live nicely on 150k takehome, but it definitely is not lavish.

Correct. We live a very comfortable, but not lavish lifestyle. We bought our home over 15 years ago, so our mortgage is well under $2,000/mo (thanks to refinancing at historically low interest rates). We live in a very nice Upper NW neighborhood (IB for Deal/JR), but our house is not a mansion.

The primary reason we don’t feel pinched is that our children attended/will attend our IB DCPS through 8th grade. That allowed us to save over $250,000 total in MM/CDs/high yield savings accounts from the time our children were infants (only for private school tuition). As a result, we only pay about 30% of the annual tuition out of our current income.

I don't get it. You have plenty of money.

Anonymous wrote:$2.7M. Nearly 60K for private plus $45K for university (about the same as private was for that kid).

Big Law partner?

about 100k per year. 1 million HHI.

About $200k HHI, we pay $30k of $50k HS tuition, grandparents give is $20k each year. 5th-8th tuition was about $30k and infant-4th at a Montessori was between $18k-$24k. My parents have always given us $20k/year so our portion went up a lot this year with HS, but there are reasons we need private vs public. Mortgage is about $2400 in a VA suburb inside the beltway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI (gross) is approximated $510,000/year (varies slightly with bonus). Two children, one in Big 3 private (started in high school). Younger child in public middle school oldest child attended.

We pay $50,000+ per year (no financial aid and no family help). We have always been amazing savers and the tuition is paid from current income, and a dedicated savings account we set up years ago for private high school. We live well below our means, so we don’t feel financially pinched at all. Our retirement plans and children’s college funds are fully funded. We also take one trip abroad each year.

Your comments are silly. On $500K a year why would you be pinched. You can comfortably send both kids and live your lavish lifestyle.

They can afford it, but I don’t think it would be a luxurious lifestyle. That is about 250k takehome. If both kids are in private, that’s 100k of the 250k. Yes, people can live nicely on 150k takehome, but it definitely is not lavish.

Correct. We live a very comfortable, but not lavish lifestyle. We bought our home over 15 years ago, so our mortgage is well under $2,000/mo (thanks to refinancing at historically low interest rates). We live in a very nice Upper NW neighborhood (IB for Deal/JR), but our house is not a mansion.

The primary reason we don’t feel pinched is that our children attended/will attend our IB DCPS through 8th grade. That allowed us to save over $250,000 total in MM/CDs/high yield savings accounts from the time our children were infants (only for private school tuition). As a result, we only pay about 30% of the annual tuition out of our current income.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$2.7M. Nearly 60K for private plus $45K for university (about the same as private was for that kid).

What do you do to make that much money? I need a new career!

DP - my guess is two biglaw partners.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI (gross) is approximated $510,000/year (varies slightly with bonus). Two children, one in Big 3 private (started in high school). Younger child in public middle school oldest child attended.

We pay $50,000+ per year (no financial aid and no family help). We have always been amazing savers and the tuition is paid from current income, and a dedicated savings account we set up years ago for private high school. We live well below our means, so we don’t feel financially pinched at all. Our retirement plans and children’s college funds are fully funded. We also take one trip abroad each year.

Your comments are silly. On $500K a year why would you be pinched. You can comfortably send both kids and live your lavish lifestyle.

They can afford it, but I don’t think it would be a luxurious lifestyle. That is about 250k takehome. If both kids are in private, that’s 100k of the 250k. Yes, people can live nicely on 150k takehome, but it definitely is not lavish.

Anonymous wrote:HHI (gross) is approximated $510,000/year (varies slightly with bonus). Two children, one in Big 3 private (started in high school). Younger child in public middle school oldest child attended.

We pay $50,000+ per year (no financial aid and no family help). We have always been amazing savers and the tuition is paid from current income, and a dedicated savings account we set up years ago for private high school. We live well below our means, so we don’t feel financially pinched at all. Our retirement plans and children’s college funds are fully funded. We also take one trip abroad each year.

Your comments are silly. On $500K a year why would you be pinched. You can comfortably send both kids and live your lavish lifestyle.

Anonymous wrote:$2.7M. Nearly 60K for private plus $45K for university (about the same as private was for that kid).

What do you do to make that much money? I need a new career!

HHI around $225K.

Two kids in Catholic schools, totaling $35K a year. We’re very happy with the schools and contribute extra during their fundraising drives.

This is basically our scenario - 50k tuition with just over 400k HHI. We certainly can afford it and still manage to save beyond our 401k. But it certainly is a big expense. We just accept that we won’t do things like big kitchen renovations until he is out of school. But it is completely worth it. Our public school system has really deteriorated in the past decade, and I have no regrets at putting him in a private school that he absolutely loves.

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting because on the financial aid threads, people commonly say that those making $400K (pre-tax) should easily be able to pay $100K+ out of pocket and are living overly luxurious lives because they can't or won't. I was jumped on by many posters because I said that paying $165K out of a $425K income would be difficult for us.

And yet the reality is that even paying $50K out of a $300-400K income (pre-tax) is hard for people. Which makes sense because it's a huge part of take-home income at this level. It's the equivalent of buying a new (nice!) car every year and throwing it out. Not many people at this income level would or could do that.

$2.7M. Nearly 60K for private plus $45K for university (about the same as private was for that kid).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$440, 1 child, grandparents currently paying. Not sure if that will go on forever and I do think $50K tuition if they stop paying will be a stretch with income. We could certainly make it work but it would really cut into our ability to save. And yes, grandparents pay school directly as a way to funnel more money to us for estate planning. Although I don’t think we get the max in cash from them each year. Is it $15K per person? So technically if you have a family of 3 you could get max of $90 a year (2 parents paying max to 3 people?)

What are your other expenses that would prevent you from affording 50k tuition on 440k hhi?

Our mortgage with escrow is $6500. But that’s it. Our take home is $20/month. It does seem like we should have more money but we do probably save at least $5K a month so I said we could certainly afford it, we just wouldn’t be able to save much. But it’s tight with summer camps, vacations, groceries, babysitters, house repairs. We don’t feel like we have endless money.