To use inheritance to pay for private school?

[Pondformarch]

We have a two year old and are due a second baby this summer. Our combined income is around £120,000, a bit more with a bonus.

My parents died when I was young and I inherited a flat. It is now worth around £125,000, not a fortune, but it would pay for private school fees.

I always had it in mind to send one child but finding out I was having a second made me think the fees would be too tight. Wondering if selling the flat might be most sensible. This is a fairly small school, not a big name one (obviously) fees for senior school are around £15,000 p/a. One of the main reasons I would prefer the private school (apart from local state choices not being brilliant) is the fact that wraparound care is really high quality and it would mean that we wouldn’t have to worry about pick ups and drop offs. Also, the school is right by my workplace, which helps.

But I also know it might be better to hang onto the flat long term. So interested in seeing what others think?

Please don’t take financial advice off an unknown on the internet 🤣

@Andrew101 please don't tell me to calm down. I'm perfectly calm. I responded to your sweeping and inaccurate generalisation based on my 20+ years of teaching in both sectors and my experience of both as a parent. Telling me to "calm down" is a patronising, gaslighting way to deflect the points I made rather than actually addressing them.

Take home salary if each earn £60k is around £80k pa. Secondary school fees - as OP has stated- are currently £15k pa per DC. That leaves £50k for everything else.
School fees go up more than salaries each year.

When the time comes, I will look around the local schools, but one major draw to private is the wraparound care that is offered; it isn’t ‘just’ a decision rooted in potential academic success but also a sort of peace of mind one if you like. If I went with a state primary I would need to pay for after school care I would only actually need on a now-and-then basis but with private, I would be able to say on Friday ‘we need to book DCs in for after school on Wednesday’ and I would know they would be cared for well in that time.

I think in some ways a better question is ‘can we afford to live on one salary (DHS)’ given that mine would be cancelled out by school fees and the answer to that is clearly yes. But would DH necessarily be thrilled about this - perhaps not - hence the flat may well come in handy.

you post about not wanting to work at your dcs school doesn’t come up if you click on “all OPs posts”

anyway, don’t presume the wrap around care at the private school will be better than before and after school clubs at a state school, with friends with dcs at different prep schools in our area, none use the wrap around care if they can avoid it, continuing to use nannies / au pairs or working part time to allow for drop off / pick up.

Childminders rarely do the run to private schools. (Often a calmer option - dropped at someone house, have breakfast with them and then a few minutes later start the walk to school, pick up advantage including a childminder will usually provide a proper dinner for your dcs so you aren’t as rushed to feed them as soon as you get in).

The childminder option really isn’t one that would work for us, but thank you. It’s been an interesting thread and there is a lot to think about.

Look round all the local schools before making a choice - and you could possibly stay with state then move, although harder to go the other way if not at set times like year 7.

weve not used our school wrap around, but a full time place would be around £170 a month, compared to £1k a month for private school here, you could book a full place and only use it on the odd days you needed, if you prefer the state schools after visiting them.

whatever you plan, if you are going to sell the flat, I’d keep an eye on the local market, prices are beginning to fall in some areas and I’d be pissed off if I waited until dc was 3/4 to sell up and got £20k less.

My kids primary school have good wrap around care and at a far cheaper price than private school fees! Ee say the week before what we want the following week - and an option for a short stay with a bsicuit or til 6 with a light meal. Quote a few in our area do. It would be worth looking at the primaries in your area.

It would mean you could afford secondary much easier and have spare for the associated costs. And even have some money towards house/uni perhaps?

For the primary years, state school and a nanny would solve your concerns about them being cared for while you work. And could facilitate joining gymnastics / brownies etc locally to build friendships. Ironically one of my draws AWAY from private primary is that everything happens on site, with the same small group of people. I think those children miss out on the wider community aspects of life and can be constrained by their "bubble". I'd be particularly concerned about that if there were in the same school from the ages of 4 to 18!

Well, yes, that is a consideration. But a nanny really wouldn’t work for us - what we need is too ad hoc for that, and I think even in urban areas where nannies are plentiful (such as London) finding one willing to work just a couple of hours after school is a challenge. And when you do find one, they leave, you have to find another, or they are unwell, or go on maternity leave - we need absolutely watertight for when we need it, which isn’t always predictable!

Yes I know, thanks: I’ve literally outlined all the prices from reception to Y11 in an earlier post

We are in a similar situation. We have decided to keep the flat and deal with the hassle. The flat is a house deposit for our 2 dc. When the day comes, it will be sold and the money divided in two. It means that we don’t have to worry about saving for their future and can just enjoy the money we earn whilst putting some away for university/ our retirement / general savings.

Our indie has wraparound until 5pm (not much help) + extra cost. Our local state has wraparound until 6pm + cheaper!

@HariKris .
Interesting.

Surely any capital is the feed the village approach though?

Would 125 generate enough income for 15 grand a year fees?

Wouldn't ops capital be better persevered by keeping it as a flat and having it generate rent? With the building going up and the rent yield.

Can any us slant investment guarantee at least 15 % per annum?

Stocks are v low at the moment so how could she draw down now?

op having said all that in your case I would do as Hari says because you have that second property anyway.

Have you looked into the tax situation OP? Depending on how you’ve structured it, isn’t there CGT to pay on the sale? So your £125k might be substantially depleted?

So use a school with an after school club then?! Still doesn't have to be private for purely that reason. If you're worried about relying on an individual childminder / nanny, the after school will run every night and you can book in as needed.

To be fair, as a teacher your hours must be pretty regular?! It's not like you're off to America 1 week a month!
I think you may be fixating on the wrap around worries a bit too much - many families are in the same boat and there are lots of options which can work.

Have you considered asking for an early start or finish at school? I did thus for around 6 years until my youngest was at secondary and it worked really well. I missed the last lesson every day I was in school so I could pick up my kids from their school. I am sure it was a right pain for timetabling but they needed staff and I am good at my job so they were willing to accommodate me.

We also live rurally but there was a before school club in the very small town where the kids went to school. I could drop them off at 7:30 and still manage quite a long commute to get to school.

Therefore needed before school care only and I could book them in for occasional after school care too.

Much cheaper to drop a bit of your salary than to lose £125,000. Your pension will take a hit for the years you do this but you get to see more of your kids.

This is not intended unpleasantly, but what is the point of these sorts of posts? Of course, not all areas have the same schools, same after school provision, same costs or same anything!

What I need is provision that I can take up as and when I need it. As far as I can see, this is not on offer at any local primary. If I wished to sign my children up for after school care, I would need to pay for it as a block when chances are I would only need to use maybe two or three of those spaces a term. In addition to this, I would need to pay for before school care or stay part time myself in order to drop the children off.

Or, if I opt for private school, I can drop them off more or less as the school day starts and pick them up when it ends, with the exception to those handful of ‘awkward’ days - and they are easily managed. This would remove a lot of stress. There are other advantages but for primary, that’s the main pull.

Doing the sums was very helpful as I could see that the sticky point would be when both children were in senior school at the same time - this is fortunately only three years. I haven’t definitely decided but I think it will be possible to hang onto the flat certainly until that period and probably even then. We shall see.

I could @bridgetjonesmassivepants but it really is something I’d prefer not to do. It really is all the drawbacks to part time with none of the benefits. I’m in every day, I don’t cut down on petrol costs or get to enjoy a day catching up with my own interests or even the housework, but I also get the crappier element of the timetabling, shared classroom and classes and so on.

Even if you do pay for afterschool childcare as a block (have you checked they all do that? There's weekly booking systems here) it would still be FAR cheaper to pay for a block of childcare and only use occasionally than it would to pay private schools fees (which in effect you also pay for a block of childcare but only use ad hoc, on top of fees)

I know that, but then there’s the fact I would have to pay for before school provision too (or stay part time) and combined with not brilliant school choices it does seem like the best option.

It isn’t purely about one thing. It’s a combination of practicality and it genuinely being the best option.

OP , I’d totally do the same thing sell the flat to partially fund school fees ,
The flat is not worth much , and perhaps rent is not much either.
if it means financially securing the education you want without Making other financial sacrifices that will affect your lifestyle then why not?