How do parents afford private school

Hardly worth getting out of bed for, right? 🤦🏻

We paid for secondary for 4 in London day schools on a massively lower salary than many on this thread are saying isn't sufficient for paying for more than one child.

In early years pre kids we didn't go mad on holidays etc and channelled all spare money into mortgage. We didn't move to a bigger house when we could have and built up a savings pot to fund the fees not covered by salary. Other outgoings were kept to a minimum but still having an annual holiday each year. The three years where we were paying for 3 sets of fees at the same time were tough but the savings lasted until our endowment (remember those?) paid out which boosted the coffers. It also helped a lot that we were on a cheap tracker interest only mortgage and the low interest rate period exactly spanned the 14 years we were paying fees.

As others have said, everyone's circumstances are different and also spending priorities. For the 17 years of our marriage before the school fees began when we could have spent more frivolously we didn't, because we always had school fees in mind and saved accordingly.

It saddens me a bit to read of all the only children of parents with huge incomes on this thread who have no siblings because of school fees. I realise we would have a lot more now in the way of savings and investments if we hadn't gone the private route, but we still don't require a lavish lifestyle and we have enough. No regrets.

£15k-25k per child (cost depending on year group) and £40k+ if they board. Our children will not be gong 😂

I only have 3 friends with kids at private. All paying fees themselves from earned income. In all cases:

• 2 parents both in £100k+ jobs
• over 45 and been on property market for 20+ years
• have not overstretched themselves with property. All still living in 2nd home purchased so not trying to continually move up.

I don’t know. Good indicator of how unequal our society is when fees are more than average gross salary

Ah, ok. I thought that they abolished them in the late 90s? I guess I thought they were a good idea, but I'm not really a fan of the concept of private school anyway. So I'd be a hypocrite to support it really.

Glad we're through schooling, however we did fund x 2 DD's from our salaries. Both £100k plus, drive old cars and one holiday a year. Worth it is as now both DD's early 20's, working and living independently.

If fees are 60k per year for two kids you need to earn 120k pre tax just to cover fees alone.
So you’re looking at 250k household income to afford it unless you have help or inheritance.

We funded through a mixture of grandparents, salary and doing without. So glad when they all finished school.

We started saving our bonus from when they started primary school (only doing secondary privately).

• Pensions can be used untouched and can be used for fees on death.
• gifts out of ordinary income for retirees with large retirement incomes.
• trusts set up well before care fees are needed.
• Sale of second properties owned by grandparents
• Grandparents downsizing and gifting capital
• direct gifts made well before death
• putting grandchildren as shareholders in grandparent’s Ltd company

Lots of ways to do it.

That’s a pretty average salary in finance, probably with a large bonus on top of 1-5x salary. Or London law firms. Business owners. Barristers. £300k isn’t even a lot.

The RAF paid 95% of our fees when at private school.

Why are you asking? Quite a goady thread.

Banking? Tech? Fin tech? Senior consultant level doctor. That sort of thing. These salaries do exist

That’s just not feasible for many people if you’re looking at top schools and/or live in more expensive areas. Even my 8 year old’s fees are £25k per year.

Where I live (not London) DS’s fees are £16k. Will rise to £20k in secondary. We moved him last year, age 10. DD will go age 12 for secondary only. Between us we earn £175k. It’s very doable for us with just 1 DS there. We’ll have 3 years of double fees which I have savings for.

They’ve been killed by VAT

2 DC’s in private school with fees approx £20k p/a per child and we pay from salaries, no inheritance or grandparent help. Both earn approx £120k each. We have a fairly low mortgage and didn’t over stretch property wise. We are all very happy with the school and feel it’s great value.

1 child - 1 salary - re-mortgaged! No holidays - old car - scrimp on everything- he left school a couple years ago and very successful!

We have 1 DC in private school, and we both have relatively senior roles in the Technology sector, with a combined income around £350k. But our private school is closer to £20k than £30k, which makes quite a difference...

What do you mean an allowable expense? I’m not following.

We’re doing primary, it’s going to be £21k for them both in total next year, they’re bright so on track for scholarships for secondary. We don’t have fancy cars, don’t spend money on clothes/hair/nails haven’t been abroad in 2 years, so we’re saving elsewhere. We obviously have decent money coming in from our salary, but we’re prioritising spending it on their education.

Same. We stopped at two because we can't guarantee to afford private education for three.

Financial planner here with children in prep school. Half the people I look after have fees paid for by grandparents and the other half pay for it from their own income. I have everyone from an uber driver who drives 16 hours a day to pay for it tp people in the law, finance and trades. There is a huge range of backgrounds, some hard working new money and others more in the inherited wealth space. Many people I look after literally cut out absolutely everything in order to be able to pay the fees. Nurses and other allied health professionals earning £40k plus a loot of overtime. It really depends on how much you value education and how hard you’re willing to work and sacrifice in order to pay for it.