Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

217 replies

TimeDrainer · 26/04/2023 00:14

Just curious. Dd1's school fees are 12000 a year and our combined annual net house hold income is about 120000. We also have Dd2 whose nursery fees are about 1100 and a mortgage of about 800 a month. We are in the North of England. I wonder how this compares to other parents who send their kids to private school.

Most parents at dd's school are consultant doctors and probably earn substantially more than us. No need for violins by the way. I know we are hugely privileged. I do worry sometimes whether we can afford it and that is probably my aibu.

(We made a snap decision to send DD to private school as she was so unhappy at her local school and back then we thought if we have some disposable income the most sensible thing to spend it on is DD's school If it makes her life a bit easier. ).

OP posts:
WalkingAwayNow · 26/04/2023 19:15

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.

Didimum · 26/04/2023 20:08

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

UnsureSchool32 · 26/04/2023 20:15

Sammysquiz · 26/04/2023 15:29

My DH is a consultant anaesthetic and our DC are at private school. He has a clinical excellence award which greatly increases his income, and also does private work 1 day a week.

Show quote history

How much is a clinical excellence award?

Lapland123 · 26/04/2023 20:24

UnsureSchool32 · 26/04/2023 20:15

How much is a clinical excellence award?

Show quote history

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!

Heatherbell1978 · 26/04/2023 20:31

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.

user4750 · 26/04/2023 20:32

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

Berklilly · 26/04/2023 20:34

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).

dwightschrutebeets · 26/04/2023 20:42

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

dwightschrutebeets · 26/04/2023 20:43

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

Lapland123 · 26/04/2023 21:51

user4750 · 26/04/2023 20:32

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

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.

ziggiestardust · 26/04/2023 22:03

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.

surreygirl1987 · 26/04/2023 22:29

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..?

Yazo · 26/04/2023 22:35

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.

Yazo · 26/04/2023 22:38

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!

Phos · 26/04/2023 22:41

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.

user4750 · 26/04/2023 22:56

Lapland123 · 26/04/2023 21:51

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.

Show quote history

Yes I’m a senior lawyer

Conductpolicy · 26/04/2023 23:06

@justme202

Indeed and it's that a dreadful indictment of state school.

Conductpolicy · 26/04/2023 23:08

@Yazo

How would people do that please re borrow equity to pay

Conductpolicy · 26/04/2023 23:13

@Heatherbell1978

Interesting!
I think the more people earn the more they spend.

If we had those salaries dd 2 would be going private no question.

There would be no questions of not being able to afford it.

user4750 · 26/04/2023 23:17

Conductpolicy · 26/04/2023 23:08

@Yazo

How would people do that please re borrow equity to pay

get a second mortgage/ remortgage for a higher amount

Conductpolicy · 26/04/2023 23:18

How or why would the bank let people do that though?

Orders76 · 26/04/2023 23:24

170k I think and fees close to 5k day.
Basically move out of London to the lowest fee you can with wfh roles.

Circe7 · 26/04/2023 23:31

For example, we bought a house for £500k. Equity of £200k. Now worth £650k. Had my ex and I stayed together our mortgage capacity would have been around £600k. We could have taken most of the equity out of the house if we had really wanted to. Bank would lend because we were likely to be able to repay the debt with interest. Plenty of people remortgage to pay private school fees though probably tend to have a bit more equity than we did. It may have been a sensible financial strategy to take a lump sum out of the house anyway because we probably could have got a better return on it by investing.

Luredbyapomegranate · 26/04/2023 23:42

user4750 · 26/04/2023 10:24

In GCSE year this close to GCSEs then yes I'd expect them to be studying all evening. In the normal course of things 2-3 hours of homework a night

Working for those hours will be utterly counterproductive

Swipe left for the next trending thread