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

When is the wedding?

Combined income of 215k. Both DC privately educated m, one finished and in work and the other in senior school. We had a big gap (8yrs) which helped with costs. 7.5k a term.

On the other hand my brother in law's kids, who live about an hour away from us are only on £11k a year for their kids! It's such a huge range.

No, that is expensive. Ours is the same bit only boarding, day is much cheaper (24k instead of 37!)

Such bad luck 😩Hopefully two years of pain and then we can get out of it. Still couldn't afford the £5500 a month for two for our area on school fees though, even without that mortgage!

OH earns in the region of £140k, I am a SAHM. School fees are funded with an inheritance

I think many higher earning doctors supplement with private work, especially surgeons. It's appalling how little doctors earn.

Yes just seen your breakdown and your mortgage is absolutely huge.

Consultant doctors in this country earn £84 k. By the time it is 20 years later it eventually rises to £119k. Given that most are late thirties or early forties when starting a consultant job, they earn this amount for only a small number of years. Consultants are balloting to strike in May due to pay erosion of 40% .

im wondering who these doctors are that are affording all this! Because the numbers ( take home pay) don’t stack up at all and most doctors I know have kids in state schools, cannot afford private schools.

£115k a year and I think private school is just out of reach for our 2 DC. We could afford it for one but not both. It’s about £26k a year around here for 2 children at secondary level, and that’s without uniform, trips, all the extras. I wish we could do it but I’d hate to be in a position where they start and then we can no longer afford it and we have to pull them out.

@prinnycessa just to add - this is for primary. My kids will go back to state sector for secondary as that is twice the cost and not achievable. Good luck with the move.

I'm curious how you know how much the parents at your school earn - do you ask or is it just a bit of guesswork from the sort of roles they are in?

I'm just interested as DC are at a major London private and I don't remember anyone asking our household income - I even remember thinking it a bit odd at the time, because how would they know we were good for the fees? I have a vague memory we may have given our jobs?

We didn't apply for a bursary, so they wouldn't have our income figues that way.

I mean, what's living 'like a king'? I've given my monthly breakdown above. The mortgage is super high because unfortunately we were in the unfortunate position of having to remortgage when all the rates were at their very worst last year – we went for a 2yr fixed, which is also the most expensive option, so as not to tie ourselves into a very high rate for any longer than necessary when we believed rates would come down by 2025 (fingers crossed). We are very thankful and privileged to have choices, and families with lower mortgage than this could live very well indeed.

I do not accept the line of 'you could but you choose not to) with the private school cost AT ALL. As I've said above, the only private school near us is £33k a year – so know, there is no way, for two kids, we could afford £5,500 a month out of our take home salary. If you happen to live near an £11k a year school fine – but not everyone does.

@PassP0rtquery definitely doable. Our current mortgage is £1k but we are planning to move back down south shortly but don't want to exceed £2.5k a month.

We don't have kids yet but would ideally like to send to private primary. Our salaries will increase in any event, I get a pay rise annually and a discretionary bonus and DH is a doctor so his will increase every couple of years until consultant when he will get a big jump. Thanks for sharing as it was very helpful

Our take home post tax is about £8,500 a month. Mortgage £3,300, utilities, commuting, insurance, council tax etc about £1500, basic food shop £500, nanny £1,100, so that leaves us £2k a month for anything else – taking the kids out, kids clothes and haircuts, house maintenance, schools clubs, birthdays and Christmas, saving for two UK holidays a year. The only private school anywhere near us is £33k a year 😬

@prinnycessa £2k per month on mortgage. It went up by £300 when our fixed term ended. We put away £1500 a month for school fees.

Plus the pay scale itself goes up to around £120k. Plus then clinical excellence awards etc

Of course they don't. Many of them have supplemental private work. The vast majority of parents at our school are doctors.

Our gross annual income can vary between approx £200K and £400K (depending on bonuses). We had 3dc in a £15K per year school until quite recently - one is still there, the other two homeschool (and we pay for private tutoring for them instead, which doesn't cost quite as much but is still approximately £12K a year for each of them). We could manage on salary only (£200K), but I think I would find it quite stressful and there would be a lot less space in our budget. Our home is fairly modest and we don't spend lots on cars, clothes, etc - we do however travel quite a bit.

Household income under £35k DS just finishing private school on full scholarship (sport's & academic)

Not a school with high end fees - approx £15k pa, and he hasn't felt out of place at all.

So it's always worth trying out for scholarships if they are available, it could reduce the cost more than you realise.

It's been fantastic for him, a great opportunity and he'll be leaving with friends from a good mix of families.

YABU because consultant doctors earn much less than £120k, you can Google the salaries.

We are half considering it as an option from Y9-13 on a gross income of under £100K. Kids First/Middle schools are brilliant but the local high school is less great and if they can't get into the better one they aren't in catchment for it would be doable but tight.

We have 4 years worth of fees/incidental costs for one child (at current rates) saved up. If we keep saving at rate we do now then by the time eldest is in Y8 we should already have enough already saved to cover them both for Y9-11 and we'd have to save for 6th form after eldest started. With that approach it's doable for us. That said if the local high school improves or they can get into a better one or they really don't want to go private when the time comes we can go with state school & could fund tutors/activities with the money we don't need to save and keep the savings to help them at uni/with house deposits etc.

Even in cheaper parts of the country I would imagine you need to be on £150K plus gross before it's reasonable to just pay fees out of income without massively compromising on something else.

DC1s fees are £7k per year (primary). When we made the decision to privately educate, our household income was £77k and our mortgage was £900 a month.

We made the decision because the local primary schools aren't great (but secondaries are) and it was just like continuing to pay for nursery.

Choice *

My dream is actually for my kid to go to a good private primary school, then get into a top grammar secondary school so I can save £26k a year. My second choose is private secondary school.