Why do people think parents who pay for private education are enormously wealthy?

[SheineOn]

Is this just the stereotype?

I went to a school that cost 18k a year (15 years ago). It’s now 24k a year.

There were wealthy people there. But also many ‘normal’ people. At least 40% fell into that category. People who lived on estates, drove modest cars, skipped holidays and ate cheaply.

They made a choice to spend their money on private education. For context, two of my closest friends have dc in private. They live off 450 a month after paying fees. They are not high earners.

Not everyone has endless wealth. Some are just happy to make the sacrifice. I find it strange people don’t seem to get that and makes me wonder how lacking in knowledge you must be to have that view of the private sector.

I used to live by four private primaries, a private secondary and a private Year 10-13 school. The parents weren't all millionaires but none of those families were living on below average wages. I agree that not everyone who attends private school come from mega wealthy families but the majority of the population do not have that money to pay for fees. Look at how many people struggle with nursery and count down the months until they no longer need to as it takes up so much of their income.

It's ok, OP has said you just need to make sacrifices 🙄

Would you do this yourself OP? Send your DC to private school if it just left you with £450 to cover all other bills?

@MintTwirl nice post, thank you …

It will be for him to decide what he does with his salary. I imagine it will depend on what his child/children want, what their aspirations are, what other commitments he has.

Just as it was for me.

They live off 450 a month after paying fees.

They must be mortgage free or get free/heavily subsidised housing with their work because the number of people paying rent/mortgage plus council tax for less than 450 will be small.

The people in your examples seem to have rock bottom housing costs which frees money for school fees. School fees aren’t a choice for most because their rent/mortgage is so high.

@LarkspurLane I’m not sure. Probably not. I would feel very guilty about it though. But I don’t think I could manage well on that.

This is what I was thinking. Obviously not an accurate figure!

I don't think that at all

As you say, there's a huge variety

I have seen bigger energy bills

My children go to a pretty normal private school (it's no Eton) and I am yet to see anyone who doesn't have a nice car, own a decent home or have plenty of holidays.

Because those people probably earn around the same as private school costs per year, so yes, they would seem very wealthy

My children go to a pretty normal private school (it's no Eton) and I am yet to see anyone who doesn't have a nice car, own a decent home or have plenty of holidays.

Well that's because it's made up..

The average mean salary in the UK is 35,000 before tax. A salary of 67,000 puts you in the top 10 per cent of earners, 52,000 in the top 20 per cent.

People get out of touch very quickly as to what wealthy actually means.

you really shouldn't use examples like this if you cant back them up @SheineOn

So you actually have no idea about your friends actual financial situation, just that they have £450 left out of an unknown income after unknown outgoings

FWIW our take home is around £7k and we could not afford to spend £4,200 out of that to send both DC to private school

I hate the rhetoric suggesting if only you tried a bit harder and valued your children, you could send them to private school

The only one I know have a five bedroom house with holidays putting two children through that school.

@SheineOn you'd feel very guilty if you couldn't send your kid to a fee paying school? Jesus Christ. Thank god I live in a nation where this kind of arseholery doesn't exist.

I’d love to see how that adds up seeing as the average salary in the uk is about 35k before tax. I also hate this we’ve worked really hard and sacrificed bla bla bla, Many people have to sacrifice just to pay rent and such like, and you can work equally hard in a lower paid, but valuable job or profession and still not earn enough.

To be honest your post makes me wonder how lacking in knowledge YOU must be OP, to have that view of an "ordinary" family's life.

I would say we are pretty ordinary. Our household income is not terrible, around 60k before tax. DP has a teaching job with some extra responsibilities, I work 3 days a week as an administrator. Mortgage is small and almost paid off due to us being old and having bought a long time ago. We have one small five year old car which we own outright, we do a self catering holiday in the UK a couple of times a year (rarely abroad), we might have a day out incl. lunch in a cafe once a fortnight, we don't drink, smoke or eat meat, if I want an item of clothing or a haircut now and again, I just buy it (within reason). We even manage to save a bit each month. In short we are solvent and manage reasonably comfortably.

But we are SO far away from ever being able to send our children to private school your post is almost insulting. It would be take every penny we bring home and probably more to put two kids through private school. We'd be literally homeless and hungry if the school fees were the first thing we had to pay each month.

Even if you live frugally and don't feel rich, if you have the equivalent of an average person's income spare each year, per child, to spend on something entirely non-essential, then you ARE rich.

Is it because school fees alone cost more than the average salary?

I can't imagine being so clueless about the cost.of things you think families are managing on £450 living costs. That's precious.

Its all relative but yes, Parents who can afford private school (even with so called sacrifices) are wealthy. At State Primary the DC's kids thought we were rich and lived in a big posh house, at Private Secondary we were just average and when DD went to State 6th form we were "rich again"
We aren't all Bankers and Oligarchs but we have more money than most people and while I wish we weren't looking at an increase due to VAT we are so we will have to suck it up. To be honest if we can't absorb and increase of a few hundred £ a month then we probably shouldn't be sending DS Private in any case.

This. If people aren't going skiing or having a side return done to send their child to a private school, then they are well off already.

Perhaps because your school fees alone are equal to some people's annual full time wage