We make $400k and pay $47k for one child. It's painful and we often wonder what the heck we're doing. Also--tuition goes up by $1500-3K a year. Most schools had a reprieve in tuition increase this year due to Covid but I'm sure a large increase is coming next year for all schools. Also, various fees and many donation requests (we donate small amounts) tack on another few thousand per year.
Our income level is pretty rare at the school.

Grandparents
Trust funds
High earners

Anonymous wrote:Worked like a dog all my life,saved , and invested every dime and I woke-up one day rich which was a bit of a shock because I was born poor.

I'm not a member of any country club and fly under the radar at the school. People are a bit perplexed because I show up at all the big donor events and and see that the scenesters are puzzled and can't figure out what I'm doing there.

Same, same, including the donor events. We don’t do the “scene” but are b generous with our school. I’m sure it is perplexing to many at our school and I’m cool with that.

Anonymous wrote:My child goes to a secular school and the tuition is about $23k -- not cheap but not $30k+ either. We have only one child so we can swing it with budgeting and because we're not paying for aftercare (or camp or travel) during covid. We couldn't afford tuition for two kids without financial aid.

Based on the number of special events the school holds for grandparents, I assume a significant number of grandparents are paying.

This surprised me because I went to private K-12 with no help from my grandparents and my kids' grandparents don't help us pay for our kids, but when my in-laws went to an event at our kids' school they couldn't believe that they were treated like royalty with fancy gifts to boot and I realized it was because many of the grandparents were paying. (Or also the school wants them to donate).

We pay tuition from our salaries, and we pay it monthly rather than all at once. We do not receive any help from grandparents, nor are either one of us independently wealthy. We both work and make good money, but we have to budget for the cost of private school. There are many things we don't do because we pay for private school. We have two kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids' tuition is paid for by their grandparernts.

I will add that we would not be able to afford it otherwise. Our HHI is about $250k.

Same here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a low mortgage and very little credit card debt. Make about $300k. Have one in private and one in daycare. Altogether about $45,000 for both and will probably put the youngest in public school as we can see already he would do fine in public.

OP here, isn't private supposed to be much better than public? Is your child in private more advanced or less advanced? Sorry if I'm not phrasing correctly, english is not my first language.

We are in a ‘W’ school zone and have a wonderful neighborhood elementary school that our oldest DC attended. However, oldest DC has inattentive ADHD so private school with smaller classes works better for her. So far our youngest doesn’t show any of these issues. Our local elementary is smaller than most so maybe 15-20 kids per class, so youngest DC should do fine.

We're wealthy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have two kids and make about 400k a year and it’s incredibly hard. We barely save otherwise and it’s stressful but public school didn’t work for our kids and they are thriving.

How do you not save anything on that kind of income? You need to change your lifestyle. That makes no sense.

I’m pretty sure PP must have significant mortgage debt.

I would assume so too and they have car loans and other things as they are spending everything they have.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parochial schools are far less expensive and many offer financial aid. Private k-12 is a higher priority for us than college savings. For college- we will encourage state schools.

OP here, is parochial such as catholic school? Are those as good as the top private schools? How do they compare to a good public school?

Parochial schools are religious. Catholic, christian, Jewish. Each school is unique and you have to look at each one separately. Some are very strong academically- some less. They are generally less expensive and offer more aid. However, most families want to be there because of the religious environment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parochial schools are far less expensive and many offer financial aid. Private k-12 is a higher priority for us than college savings. For college- we will encourage state schools.

OP here, is parochial such as catholic school? Are those as good as the top private schools? How do they compare to a good public school?

HHI is around 300k and our kids go to a Catholic school. If you aren’t Catholic, you are welcome to attend but they are required to take religion. We send our kids because we wanted the religious aspect so do with that what you will but it isn’t for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worked like a dog all my life,saved , and invested every dime and I woke-up one day rich which was a bit of a shock because I was born poor.

I'm not a member of any country club and fly under the radar at the school. People are a bit perplexed because I show up at all the big donor events and and see that the scenesters are puzzled and can't figure out what I'm doing there.

+1,

Except we tried a Country club for a year. Biggest waste of money. Private school on the other hand well worth it. I will say private only good depending on the learner. Public was actually better for math and science no doubt.

Don’t mean to take this off topic but how do you get to try a country club for a year? I thought all the CCs around here has huge initiation fees.

Social memberships?

Pay with after tax income or savings or dividend streams or sell stocks.

Anonymous wrote:Meant to add, we applied late because of covid but friends who applied to larger schools during the regular cycle got significant financial aid. It doesn't hurt to apply.

OP here, if you do not mind me asking, is the financial aid similar to what one would receive for college? Or more significant? Trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to apply with a 200k salary (although that is before taxes) for aid for two kids or they will laugh me out of the door.

Anonymous wrote:Parochial schools are far less expensive and many offer financial aid. Private k-12 is a higher priority for us than college savings. For college- we will encourage state schools.

OP here, is parochial such as catholic school? Are those as good as the top private schools? How do they compare to a good public school?