If your kids go to private school how much do you earn?

Yes I’m a senior lawyer

Household income of 170k gross. We can afford private primary school for our DD who is an only. Costs about 3.9k a term. We won't be sending her to private secondary if at all possible. We could afford it but there are good state options and we would appreciate the extra money each month.

Also if you're a consultant doctor, you're more likely to have been to private school than other professions and more likely to have wealthy parents. It's a bit chicken and egg!

Most parents who send their kids private have grandparents paying/supporting either directly or indirectly. Or borrow equity from house (in the south) income isn't that relevant.

I have two children attending at the moment. I teach in the school so they go for free. A life hack 😂

Is this in the UK or abroad..?

Household income of $370k combined, and DS's high school fees will be around $4k per term. When we were living in the UK we had a combined income of 130GBP and I wouldn't have considered us able to afford it.

You must know from he statistics available that this is very rare. The maximum NHS consultant full time salary after 20 years as a consultant is 119k, but starts at 84 k when you start off as a consultant in late thirties/ early forties usually.

very few have 9 CEAS! He must be working like crazy to get that.

and then a second job in the form of private work on top of that!

This is really uncommon. Do you work? It would be impossible to do all the above and have any meaningful input into day to day family life.

We live in a very expensive area so may not be able to though esp with another on the way

We're strongly considering it atm. Going to see some soon. I'm a SAHM (toddler) and husband earns around 180/200K

https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/consultant-award-schemes/consultant-award-schemes-and-clinical-excellence-awards-cea

Our combined income is around 150k gross incl bonus, kids are not school-aged yet but just with nursery fees X2 we will just be able to make it (currently 1 in nursery and second due soon so we did the maths).
Mortgage is about 1200/month, we have normal outgoings (few luxuries like higher end gym or cleaner but nothing extravagant either), not much in holidays costs as we have been going abroad to my family in the past couple of years and stay there for free...

Yet with nursery fees for 2 kids we won't be able to put anything in savings, no overpayment on mortgage, no flexibility with work or safety net if one of us lose their job (beyond what we will have saved by then)...
So with that in mind I don't see how we could sustain private school fees for 10+ years for both, it's definitely about choices but also how risk adverse you are. I guess i'm really not when it comes to lifestyle spends!

With 1 kid only I would probably consider it. I'm also thinking that if the kids want or need to go private for whatever reason when they are secondary school aged, I would consider sending them to my home country where private fees are much lower (2-3k a term in average for a good school).

No, local awards can be circa £40k. It’s only £3k at level 1. National awards are separate.

BF earns circa £240 as an nhs consultant with clinical excellence awards and some private work

Lots of people with huge salaries here saying they can't afford it but I assume that's a choice to prioritise other things as opposed to it being unaffordable. DH and I earn combined £165k but with bonuses that can be £175k. 2 DC in state school (6 and 8) but we're planning on sending them to private for secondary. We can comfortably afford one out of income but two is a stretch. So we're saving a pot to help us get through when we're paying two sets of fees. We may need to release equity to help but we have a low LTV and could repay the mortgage in full when we're 55 and can access pensions. So it is taking some financial planning. No way could we afford to have sent them from primary school. Not sure if OP has done that.

3k and that’s before tax!!
her husband has a national ward worth 9 CEAs! This is not the norm and I’m surprised he can fit in an extra job as anyone getting any CEA is usually going above and beyond, time wise. Let alone do an extra job!

How much is a clinical excellence award?

She works 25hrs a week. The £16k is after tax free childcare saving is applied. Her salary is £21k a year.

Joint income around £240k. We are at the low end of earners by far at our kids’ London school. By the time they left, the fees for each child was around £23k a year. We had a mortgage and it was a real struggle. We didn’t have big holidays and have very ordinary cars and an average home.

But we feel it was worth it, as did they. Great education and lovely kind and down to earth friends.

Including bonuses, we take home between 13-14k/month net. We don’t feel we could comfortably afford private for our three children… not without a lifestyle downgrade, anyway. Our kids are in a very good state state school and are thriving, so we see no point in shelling out for it unless something changes. We’d probably feel differently if one of our children had educational needs that weren’t being met or if the local provision wasn’t very good.

We use the extra money for things like family activities, travel, extracurriculars, etc. We also save a lot with a view to being able to help them with university and house deposits later on.

My friend whose husband makes in low 7 figures has her three in private, and they decided against having a fourth child because of the cost.

Combined income is around 180k before bonuses etc. We have 4 in private school, we get a discount on the youngest 2 fees because we have 4 there.

Around £150k but no mortgage and the school is only £12k per year

Ah those are rare-national awards. I only know about 2 in my whole trust who have this. Well done to him. The private work is like having an extra job.

Why are you surprised? You don’t have a mortgage. Most people do and in London it’s normal for people to be paying out £3-5k to live in an average terraced house.

Agree, we earn that (no mortgage, v low tax and school fees approx £15k per year for two DC) and manage very easily. I’m surprised at some of the responses from higher earners than us suggesting they can’t!

@hettiethehare

We had some research done a while back by an independent consultancy and some income questions were on there.

Additionally various parents and I have had chats about Tax Free childcare and them not being eligible.

Some is surmised as I can see from the work email signatures - big four partners, consultants in private practice plus multiple home addresses.

All the above plus our location means you’re looking at serious money, whether that’s assets or high income.

During the pandemic we had hardly any requests for assistance which was really surprising to me.

@Lapland123 It’s £3K per annum for each Clinical Excellence point. DH’s is a bronze award so is an additional £30k per year gross.
But yes, the private work is his main income.