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

[TimeDrainer]

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. ).

DC goes to private school (she is 4), fees including wraparound care are about 20K, gross household income around 200K. We live abroad though, so taxes are lower. It feels like a lot to me but we also aim to save a high % of income, so I think that's what really makes it seem like there is no money leftover (which I know is unreasonable!).

If you can afford it and have equity in thr house why wouldn’t they? It’s how banks make money.

NHS consultants yes. Private consultants can earn multiples of that

Because you can 'make do for now' on £2M a year? How?

Grandparents pay for my DC
If they aren’t able to for any reason or choose not to, I have some back up not to otherwise be used funds and am trying to add to those.

I feel like people wildly overestimate how much the average doctor earns - I know a lot of doctors, mostly female, and not one single one does any private work. Maybe it’s mostly the men. The women don’t put themselves forward for CEAs either even though they go above and beyond.

We live in UK, 3 kids at private secondary so 60k per year. No bursaries or scholarships or grandparents. We pay fees out of salary. DP earns about 120k I'm on commission so my income varies between about 130k to 250k.

We could just about afford to send our daughters to private school and have considered it many times, however after hearing the experiences of family and friends who send their children to private school we’re finally content with our decision not to.
Our business partners daughter attends quite a prestigious boarding school and we had to rescue her from a grown man’s house the other week (she’s 13) and the complaints our friends make about their children’s schools are very similar to state school ie bullying etc.
in our area the fees are around £25k-£30k a year so I couldn’t justify it for something that is so far from perfect. Not to mention that I think it’s better for children to grow up and be around a variety of people not just privileged ones.

Yes on paper it's a lot but we whack a lot into our pensions (35% of my salary to bring me to the lower tax bracket) - DH paid very little into one for years and between maternity leaves and other things I didn't do much either so we've really upped that in recent years and we want to keep that up while paying school fees. It makes more sense to do that and release equity from the mortgage (which can then be repaid via pension lump sum) than lower pension payments.

Tbh this is where salary isn't a great indicator. Someone on the thread said they had a mortgage of £3.3k for example. There's no way we could afford private if that was the case even with our salaries!

It would seem not. The school gets incredibly good results.

gcses start in less than a week. Of course most kids will be working all evening.

I guess it’s very dependent on specialty. In our case DH is ICU & Anaesthetics, so does one full-on week of ICU a month where he’s flat out, and one similar ICU weekend, and then the rest of the month is just 1 day of anaesthetics a week. So he can fairly easily fit in national work, a few days of private work per month, and be around for me & the kids.

Also in the last town we lived in there was an absolute bunfight between the anaesthetists over who did the private work, whereas where we live now it’s all shared out very equitably!

Noone I know has done that, they have just planned and saved up.

Yes the doctors spoken about here are miles off what the average consultant earns. CEA stats reflect this too- see 2022 government info in that.
Most doctors I know are female, just about managing to do a less than full time consultant job to raise their family. They’re earning 84k if full time and this goes up over 20 years.
Why on earth does anyone think 85% consultants voted for strike motion to be started?!
The vast, vast majority of doctors rely on the NHS income as, you know, it’s a full time job!

Household gross income £400k, we have DC1 at prep and planning to send DC2 from age 4. Fees are £18k a year, and we spend another £1k ish on extra curricular clubs after school (plus separately other clubs out of school on top). We have a high mortgage but it will reduce significantly once we sell our other property and can pay off a chunk. We have significant other assets, which would easily cover the cost of school. Those assets were bought from salary income, and invested in high risk areas. We have had no help from family or inheritance.

We live comfortably and don't limit our lifestyle. We take all the holidays we want (but don't go away every school break, because it's tiring to organise and I like spending time in London). But don't fly private/first and tend to book air bnbs. Spend a lot on fun activities in London like theatre and theme parks. Live very centrally so don't bother with a car. No nanny or cleaner. Other families at our school are lawyers, bankers, tech workers, other professionals.

We're very happy with the school. DC1 is quite shy so really benefits from the class size (12). Our local primary is outstanding and I'm sure she'd have done well there academically, but she would get overlooked in a class of 30 and it can't provide all the opportunities the prep does; she simply wouldn’t thrive as much.

What utter nonsense. We are not funded by any GP's and I would say most of the kids in my dc classes have hugely successful parents. I'm in NW London and can definitely tell you people here are very, very high earners. Private schools here are 20-25 a year.

@Heatherbell1978

That's what I mean there is money there but you have decided to prioritise pensions.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all!

As example though I have 15 grand in a sipp and earn 13000 a year..
I'm looking at private but worried I couidnt keep up payments for 5 years wifh health issues but If I did it would be the entirety of my wage into the fees with no pensions or savings.

@Dilemma19.. Hilarious how could you possibly know.

I know a high earner whose entire fees are paid by gp!

To send 2 DC private, you would need at least a spare £3k-4k per month to make it comfortable, what with all the extras on top of the fees.

My DC are still in primary, and as I'm a single parent I currently have a Nanny Housekeeper that a lot of my spare cash goes on, however I am preparing my DC for private secondary, in case they don't get in to nearest good state.

I work in finance at Director level.

Would you keep them on orange for high school or switch then ?

Actually I do know what the parents in my dc classes do for a living. Hilarious you would think you know that better than me.

Is the point though that they might be high earners but still have the fees paid by family without you necessarily knowing that?

My BIL is a high earner (partner in big 4). I’m sure he could afford to pay his kid’s school fees himself (and presumably other parents would assume that he was doing so) but in fact they are paid for by SIL’s loaded parents as it’s a tax efficient way of gifting to their grandchild.

@JanuaryPinks that's a fair point. I was thinking more from the perspective of these are people who could easily afford these fees and don't need GP financial support. If they are accepting the money for other reasons then that's something different.

What a lit of people forget is how many children in private schoold habe SENDs. in my oldest’ class its a good 40%. his secondary from autumn on is a special school which follows the national curriculum, also private. Most parents can just about afford it, there are bursaries for the ones who can’t. Most kids have been failed by state schools, the school helps many to go to top universities after having been called failures before.
Its not a choice for private - its a choice between an education for your child, or giving up on them. Often an impossible choice.

This would be a much more enlightening thread with some questions about wealth, not just income. Total Net Worth, primary residence net equity, non-primary residence property equity, non-property equity etc. Also inheritance/gifted wealth information, both already received and expected.

DS switched fm state to boarding school in Yr 10 at £46000+ a yr (crazy fees). Our combined net income at £400k after tax. DS now in yr 12 and DH is retiring this year. Net income will fall down to £200k.

DS said the boarders at his school are fm rich families whose parents are private doctors, lawyers and business owners owning retail chain or restaurant chains. We are the least well off.