Is this a financial mistake? Help please

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I have a 2 year old and have recently been gifted 80k. If I paid off some of my mortgage with this I would owe 150k. I’m 35.

The schools round here are absolutely awful. I can’t move area as I need family support so I have to stay.

Yesterday I looked round a private school which is 20k a year including vat. Me and ex are on good terms and he pays 1,200 a month. He won’t pay school fees but has said he will increase monthly payments to 1,500 if I choose private.

What would you do? I don’t have a high income my take home is 2,400. I am worried for dd and feel a bit lost with what to do. Please help!

Invest it and look at private from year 5.

Absolutely- however if done right unlikely to be as much as compound interest

Do not do this OP! For a start gone are the days when a catholic school was considered to have a better education. I’m saying this as a catholic with DCs in a catholic primary school.

You also cannot get a place at a catholic school just based on church attendance. Your child would need to be baptised a Catholic. Yes some people do this to get their DCs into catholic schools, personally I think it’s pretty immoral to claim to follow a faith you don’t and many churches look out for this.

Catholic schools these days are no different to other faith and non faith based schools, the quality of education is absolutely based on the quality of teaching staff and head teacher. I would say my DCs school has gone from a 10 to a 5 in the last 3 years under knew leadership. Anything can happen between now and when your dc starts school.

As others have said, what makes the local schools so awful?

Private schools cost more than state, not only in the obvious (fees) way, too. The uniform is often more expensive, there are often more extras to pay for, school trips, etc. So £80k at £20k a year is only four years, and if your child's now 2, that's not even enough to get through primary. It sounds as if you'd be putting yourself under immense additional financial pressure, and that's something to be cautious of, to be honest.

You don't need to decide "no" for now, though, you can pay a chunk off your mortgage, max out your ISA, and I think you get up to £1k a year interest on savings before you pay tax on it, too. You can use the money for other education things later if you want - music or sports lesson, a tutor, an additional language outside school, or university costs.

It’s not just the fees that are expensive with private schools it’s the other costs too, uniforms, trips etc plus if you can’t fund into secondary then there isn’t much point just funding primary. I’d look at the mortgage, if your current interest rate is less than you can get in a savings account I’d put the money in savings and pay off the mortgage when rates move the other way or when you next remortgage or go onto a new deal.

Having spent 10 years recovering mortgage debt when I was younger. I agree with most of the posts and be really careful with private school fees. Always a great move to reduce your mortgage. It’s such a horrid move for them if you need to move them to state schools in the future. We did as most suggest we moved to an area with a great comprehensive and top Grammer school. It was the best move in the end for the children.

I wouldn’t bother with private school, it is on the kid and parental support whether they do well or not. If they aren’t academically inclined private school won’t get them great exam results/a good job.

Any primary school is going to give them the basics, and they will
likely have more fun and make more friends.

Secondary is slightly different but the schools strengths need to match your child’s strengths - but you can’t currently second guess yourself what those strengths might be!

I would get financial advice to invest your windfall for the next 5-7 years, then consider once your child is secondary school age and look to see what school is best then to make a decision.

A lot can change in 5-7 years and secondary schools you might think are not great now might be totally different by then - you may then find that you don’t need to move etc and can reinvest the money for your child’s future.

Pay off mortgage. Pay for extra tutoring / holiday school if you feel your child needs a boost. You will kill your self covering private school fees based on the salary / income you mention

The fees are much lower in early years..but they go up with age. It's also the extras..I went to private school in 6th form and a friend went on a scholarship. His mum worked all hours for the extra bits..uniform/lots of sports kit/trips/crammer course as one teacher was rubbish and the school knew we'd all fail the subject etc etc.
Maybe see if in time can get a scholarship and then use some money for extras. The money will soon go :(

Thank you! I am on the side of the mortgage now and then saving again all over for secondary perhaps

I think if you want to invest in your childs education it's best to give them a tutor, books, and things you can buy yourself

Pay off your all or part of mortgage, you will save more than investments can generate.

Spend money on tutors instead, when they need it.

Private doesn't necessarily mean better

Private schools have their advantages but what makes the biggest difference in a child's life is quality time with parents.

Pay off some of the mortgage then when your child is old enough, take them to see the world and do stuff together. Make memories.

I inherited a bit from my grandad and am planning on doing some travelling with my kids.

I think I’d pay off a chunk of the mortgage but keep
some in reserve too. Tutors can really help, in our experience we used them for gcse maths and one A Level (for different children). Also if your child goes to uni then accommodation is now crazy and often big deposits need to be paid for the following year house but in the first year. You will need reserves. Then there’s the cost of driving lessons, etc, it never ends!!

I would put 20k in a stocks and shares ISA invested in a fund such as VUSA and use the remaining 60k to pay down the mortgage.

If I didn’t like the school, I would put £10k aside for a private tutor in case child if you think falls behind at any stage and needs extra tuition in maths and English in final years before secondary school

I'd do a combination of what's suggested above by @Lovetoplan2 and @Y737 . Pay down the mortgage with £50k (which will save you a lot of interest payment in the long run), put £20k in a stocks and shares ISA and put £10k in an interest-bearing account you can add to as necessary from your maintenance payment to act as a cash cushion in case your DC needs extra help with maths or English.

Enquire about bursaries at the private school now that may give you an idea if they’d offer you a discount based on your income/expenditure and assets

I don't think that's necessarily true - I know plenty of people who do or have done private primary and state secondary. Like us. Our sons both went to the same private primary, DS1 has just left a state comprehensive and DS2 will be going to the same comp next year.

There are also lots of people who live in areas with grammar schools who do private primary and grammar secondary.

We sent our eldest to a private school, he got a scholarship so we paid half fees. It was the same school that DH and DFiL went to. I had no say in the matter. With help from the ILs we could afford it. However by the fourth year he was there (not yr 4 but what we called the 4th form) the fees had risen so much it was difficult to pay for them. DH refused to pull him out as we would have to pay for the next term anyway.

As I result of this we have a son who is angry about going to the school as he felt out of place. Things like other children discussing their ski trips when he stayed at his grandparents for a couple of days.

There will be people on here saying you can only get a decent job if you went to a private school. Bollocks, my private school educated son thinks the world owes him a living whilst my son who went to the local comp is going to start his doctorate this year

Your £80000 would pay for four years and what then? Treat yourself and then put it in your mortgage.

50k in premium bonds, 20k in stocks and shares isa (vanguard or similar), £5k in a decent savings account or cash ISA and £5k in junior S&S isa for your DD. If you’re On a Fixed rate mortgage then next time it’s up for remortgage I’d potentially pay off a chunk from the premium bonds to see if it gets you a better rate. Otherwise drip feed savings into the stocks and shares isa. That’s of course if you’re ok with risk etc.

Minor private school, cost from 10 years old though to sixth form .
close to 350 thousand, including uniform ( endless)
and trips ( regular) all the way out extra costs you can’t even imagine!
wish I’d paid off my mortgage and had a lump sum invested for my son ,
the state school in our area was , is horrendous, drugs knife crime etc
so I felt I had no choice,
it’s left me broke and wishing I had simply moved tbh
the one thing I hadn’t considered in great measure was the fact that my sons class mates where from very wealthy families ,
all holidaying in expensive exotic places
birthday parties lavish etc , still have not had a holiday in 15 years
theres more to life tbh ,
if you can get tutoring outside of school if you’re worried about education standards
id go that route In hindsight