How do parents afford private school

[Tonnnnnn]

Around here private school fees for secondary school are around £30k per year.

What sort of salary is required to fund two kids at private school? I am assuming both parents need to earn around £100k mark or one parent needs to earn £250k.

Even then, mortgage, holidays etc.

Aside from a few high paying industries ( banking, law) most places would t pay this much unless you were senior, and there are thousands of private school places around London.

Wonder if people are using their salaries or if it’s family
money paying for the fees

@Chocaholic37 a lot of jobs at higher levels come with huge bonuses so the basic salary might be £100k but then they get a £200k bonus plus share options etc.

Did you actually read my first post? I specifically excluded 'IB'? And specifically said that even in law, finance, banking etc you have to be pretty senior to get to £300k. So yes the MDs and the big law firm partners earn more, but most well paid people in those sectors do not and £300k would still be a very large salary, even in those sectors and even in London. Saying it isn't a large salary is just disingenuous and pretty gross tbh, and I say that as a high earner!

You were responding to a post that was specifically about those professions, but you randomly excluded them from your assessment of £300k as a salary. Then you brought in ‘seniority’ as a factor when this is implicit in a discussion about school fees - junior staff aren’t paying school fees. Of course £300k is a high salary in general, no one would argue with that, but for those groups of professionals it is not a high salary. That’s just fact.

Junior staff aren't paying school fees but they also aren't earning £300k. For the third time, £300k IS a senior salary, even in those sectors, and precisely the kind of salary that generally allows people to pay school fees. That's just fact.

So what is a high salary then?

Salary for us for 3 kids in private. DH makes 200k and I make 190k before bonuses. We live in a house worth 1.6m. If we didn’t have fees we would have gone for something closer to 2.5m.

I don’t agree. Law trainees are on nearly £200k. Senior associates on £300k. Banks and other FS are around thr same. I don’t know why you’re saying otherwise.

Indeed. Plenty of junior bankers and PE professionals on £300k by their late 20s too. Don’t bother arguing with that poster though, because she’s lumping professions like investment banking, fund management, city law etc. in with general ‘FS’, when they are VERY distinct.

Here you go @Historyofwolves, from a quick google (note VP is 6+ years into IB, so late 20s if you start out of university).

We are both high earners so can afford it easily. Friends we know inherited a legacy for their 3 children ringfenced for their education, however they are struggling with the increased VAT as they are not high earners. All these threads boil down to the same thing, people earn more than you, have inherited, have family help or cut their cloth accordingly, its not rocket science many people earn a lot of money, many people do not.

Law trainees are not on £200k. I used to work in a top 50 law firm. Trainee salaries there are approx £32k and go up to £50k on qualification (slightly more in the London office). Even in the London offices of US firms, they are not earning £200k as trainees. On qualification, yes, but not as trainees. And those on £200k once qualified are in the minority.

I don’t agree. Law trainees are on nearly £200k. Senior associates on £300k

My sibling works for a MC law firm. Trainees aren't on 200k! Look at NQ salaries, for one...

www.legalcheek.com/2024/11/revealed-what-100-top-law-firms-pay-newly-qualified-solicitors-with-some-earning-180k-straight-from-their-tcs/amp/

I’m not talking about top 50. I mean the actual top.

@springtimemagic which top law firms pay 200k to trainees?

Magic Circle salaries

No “top” firms pay their trainees £200k and you didn’t specify the type of firm in any case. There are over 9000 law firms in England and Wales so top 50 is a very small group.

Exactly. The US law firms pay a bit more than Magic Circle but no trainee solicitor is getting £200k. And also, we are talking about a tiny group of law firms out of over 9000 in England and Wales.

We aren’t bankers or lawyers and make about 200k each. Plenty of STEM jobs pay that much in senior management.

By being rich, or having wealthy family who also help pay.

You'll have a lot of people claiming to be be 'ordinary earners' shortly - but the majority will be higher or extra rate taxpayers.

I went to private school in the 90s. My dad was a CAD design engineer in oil and gas. To pay the fees he took overseas contracts which paid more and worked abroad a lot.

Modest working class background and worked his way up in the industry as an apprentice, he never went to Uni.

I had a 30% scholarship but it wasn't for any one thing. It was a special all round scholarship. I don't think such things exist anymore - you either have to be brilliant in sport or music or academics, or there are bursaries for low income families. Whereas I have a feeling my mum did some charming of headmasters. I remember going along to these meetings before starting the school and having to appear nice and friendly.

We did have a relatively nice house in a commuter town - good for the area. Most of my school friends (not all) lived in country houses with pools, or farms. We had 1 family holiday abroad and my dad had to cut it short as he had to go back to work. Similarly we went to Butlins one year and had to leave after a week as we ran out of money. Mostly we went on camping and caravan holidays.

I don't remember having a lot of 'stuff', but equally don't feel I went without - I got a part time job about 15 which paid for clothes shopping. It wasn't a flashy school, genuinely I would say most of the parents sacrificed on expensive holidays and conspicuous consumption and prioritised fees.

I don't think it's affordable in the same way now and that's because of the massive increase in wealth inequality since the 90s. We wouldn't be able to afford it now.

Plenty is stretching it a little. And it very much depends on where you are in the country. London, the tech corridor between Cambridge and Oxford... Sure. Elsewhere? Not so much.

@EsmeSusanOggEveryone I know is remote working and can live where they please so long as they can travel when needed. I probably make 5 long haul business trips a year. The rest of the time I’m working from
home and no one gives a fig where I live.

Very fortunate. Most jobs do not have that flexibility. Even in the public sector, where the 'perk' of being able to work from home 2 to 3 days a week is given as a reason for substantially lower salaries.

I know senior manager roles in the civil service - even in Stem related subjects - where you will not earn more than £70k. Which is a decent salary, but not necessarily afford private school fees amounts.

I've literally excluded IB from my very first comment so no idea why you're sending me information about IB salaries?

I also know what senior associate salaries are, which is why I said £300k is a senior salary!! Many, many senior associates in big law are well into their 30s and are still senior. You can have a big salary without being partner.

'Senior' does not just mean MD and partner - a very low proportion of people actually make it that high and still manage to have a high salary. £300k is a high, senior salary across most industries FFS.

@EsmeSusanOggNo of course they don’t but then most people can’t afford private school. It was always going to be the high earners and with that comes global senior jobs with flexibility.