To buy again or educate? Help please!

[Bringsy]

Just wondering what most people would do in this situation really. We have 150k set aside for school fees (ds is 7 and due to start in a year).

We have a four bed two bath house with decent garden, worth around 550k. But it’s not my ideal home for various reasons. I’ve seen a few homes coming up around 700-750k that are lovely. We could keep our mortgage minimal and be in one of these homes if we used the 150k.

We could technically pay fees from income and this is the position we would be putting ourselves in if we did this. However, we have around 4K spare a month so could start saving again towards fees quite quickly.

I like things to be organised hence the 150k ready for fees but I wonder if i’m making the wrong choice here. We could always downsize again if needed. We are late 30s for context. What would you do?

Also edited to say the title is a bit weird.. I meant really would you prioritise the education and not risk anything going wrong there so you could buy the house.

If your incomes are stable and you’re unlikely to have more kids and maternity leaves etc etc then just buy the bigger house, use the money to get your forever home and use income to pay school fees whilst still setting aside what you can into savings to cover any unforseeable circumstances down the road

During the schooling of our child the average school fees in the area went from £10k to £22k. Worth bearing in mind.

Personally, I'd prioritise family life and contentment over a private education, but that's largely because state schools in my area are excellent, and my children did not require the smaller class sizes and extra support that some private schools can provide.

So, only you can decide how much your child will benefit from the private education you have in mind, and whether that's worth risking to live in yoiur dream house.

It's not clear where you live, but would it be worth postponing a private education until secondary stage?

I would move, and potentially postpone private school until secondary age, so a really solid pot of savings. It wouod be tough if started and then had to stop due to circumstances changing, than if just started later. Will also give time to fully establish best route - a child's academic profile can change a lot between 7 and 10, and with that the best fit for school may change too.

How about a portion for fees and the rest for purchase?

You may find that state school has not prepared child to the standard required to enter private education at secondary standard, it depends how good your local primary school is.

Yes that is true. But a but of tutoring can help with that. Many children go from state to grammar, and in many cases grammar tests are harder than private schools. For example- conparing the Buckinghamshire 11+ paper with the entry exam for Wycombe Abbey, one of the top private girls schools in the country, my daughter found the Abbey entrance paper much easier than 11+, although acheived pass mark for both.

Sounds like you can afford both so why not