How much would you/ do you earn a year to afford private school?

[Luna02]

So I would love to be able to afford to send my kids to a private school as I was also privately educated, my husband is not too keen and he went to public schools. He said we could never be able to afford it. He is earning so much that we would probably not be able never be eligible for bursaries.

together we are taking home about 10k/ month after taxes. We haven’t paid off our mortgage and we only have 1 property (would love to have a holiday home as well). We do go away a lot- basically every holiday and wouldn’t want to change that. I am more just thinking how much I would need to expand my business to earn more to afford it.

so I am just wondering how other people are able to afford it. Have you already got your mortgage paid off?

This is a question that gets asked a lot and the range of incomes that people report is always huge. Some people make huge sacrifices for their children's education, some don't even notice the money leaving their account. I would get a feel for fees at the schools you like the look of (factor in the likely increases for proposed tax, and of course the standard increases for age), deduct that from your 10k, and see if you would be happy to live on what remains. If you're serious, I would go for a chat with your financial advisor, who can make sure you have a suitable cushion prepared incase of any blips in income. Then maybe see if your OH might be prepared to go and look at some schools with an open mind. Those tours are usually pretty persuasive so if he's still against it, you probably need to take him seriously!

As @CathedralHugger says, it all depends. How many children do you have? How big is the mortgage? How willing are you to sacrifice some of the luxuries in return for independent education? Are you saving for university fees or a second property for your children?

Taking bursary eligible families out of the equation, there is a range from those with trust funds that pay for the education through to those who use a large chunk of salary for fees and sacrifice expensive holidays, houses and cars in the process.

At DSs school most parents, like us, were making sacrifices to pay the fees. We had one holiday a year in a cottage in this country. His friend’s parents were putting three boys through the school by remortgaging their house. It’s not just a question of being able to afford the first year - the fees will inevitably go up every year. Talking to your financial advisor would be a good move.

£800k per year (both accountants with bonuses) sometimes more, half goes to the taxman, mortgage paid off, one property, two kids educated privately from kindergarten through to A levels. We always paid school fees from salary never relying on bonus. Not flashy, no fancy holidays, we don’t ski etc. When we were first married, 20 years ago we earned £80k and no bonuses. Talking to other parents over the years I’ve been surprised how many rely on grandparents helping or completely paying fees.

We are at a prep school and apparently 80% of fees are paid for by grandparents!!! It's hard not to begrudge. Life would be so funking easy.

Our school is a mix between those juggling multiple businesses to pay the school fees to others living off trust funds.
We have a household income of circa £180k per annum (pre various taxes). Mortgage paid off. 1 overseas holiday per year and I'd say we're at the poorer end of the spectrum at our school.

Wow our income is way lower than most on here, more like 160k and a lot of that goes on the mortgage. We do have some medium sized savings from inheritances. We'll have two going into independent school and I feel strongly that I'd make any sacrifices necessary to send them there, including dipping heavily into the savings (my family at least would agree that's what they're for).

However I'm also a teacher and banking on getting the staff discount for at least one of them. Also dh's salary may well have risen by the time dc2 (still a foetus) is going into prep school.

I'm stunned by some of the figures on here - I've worked at Eton group type schools for over 10 years and most of the students seem to come from households like mine. Indeed one of my former students is a neighbour in an identical house to ours.

Too much hype and cost involved, seriously half the kids getting out of these schools are not appreciative of effort you out in to keep them there, say 80% don’t care, to them it’s just a school.

We take home just under £5k p/m after tax between 2 of us. Fees are £1,500 p/m - it is very very hard. I can’t dress it up as anything but hard.

Hard and not worth it, unless it’s academic selective, but there are only a few of those about. Otherwise you are shitting up your life and working harder in order not to see yr kids as much under pretense they are getting something great out of it. Nah, majority are average school days they are happy to leave behind. Just get a tutor or a few and cut yourself some slack.

I have to say I agree somewhat with Jonti23. Unless your local school is very bad its really not worth living on the breadline to provide a private education.
Our fees have gone up some 15% and I'm starting to question the value for money and we may well move DS2.
The upside for us from the school is that it provides alot of sport and our kids really enjoy that and especially DS2 it keeps him motivated for school. But if my child was not massively into sport then I would be even more inclined to question the value for money. It's not academically selective and the kids were just as smart at the state primary. Our kids are not being academically pushed.
As an academic exercise, if nothing else, DS2 is doing online 11+ tutoring which he really enjoys. It is more academic than his school and he is about middle of the tutor group. Its way cheaper than the school fees so I totally understand why people in London stick with the state schools and throw a pile of cash at tutoring. Sadly our local secondary schools are pretty dire so its not an option.

I would only send my children if I was a multi millionaire and money was no object. I don't know anyone that's went to private school and ended up any better off for it and I know a lot that went including my own father.
The only benefit that I can see is that they get better school trip opportunities. If you have to make sacrifices like missing family holidays etc it's really not worth it. My nieces and nephew go to private school and my niece is still struggling with her reading and writing at 8 years old and my nephew is in reception year and still cannot speak in sentences yet their school has not made any interventions or suggested any help of any sort. Whereas in mainstream they'd be flagged and would be receiving support. The school they go to is one of the most prestigious and most expensive in the county.

Our household income is slightly more than yours and I don't think we can afford it - 2 children. Mortgage is large though. Possibly for secondary

I would be estimating ~£4.5k/month to pay for fees and extras for them both. I'd need to be able to afford that comfortably, and have a substantial amount in savings as a back up to go down that route

I work in a private school and my job involves billing and collection. I would say about 5% of fees are paid by grandparents and it is obvious that some parents really struggle to pay the fees.

OP as you mention children, I think you might fall into that category. I believe our fees are fairly average and by the time your children are 7 you would be spending about 35% of your take home pay on fees, that is if you only have two, closer to 50% once they get to senior. That feels like too much to me.

How many kids do you have?

With just one kid and for a "normal" day school (not a big-name boarding school) then it's perfectly possible with a take-home around £6k per month so I would think with your £10k it would be perfectly possible unless you have 4 kids or would only be satisfied by Eton-level schooling.

Depends which school. I'm a lone parent and earn about 250k a year. I use the school plan so it's paid monthly which is about 2k

I picked private because my DD14 has ADHD and ASD. She is bright but can't hack large noisy classes etc and the local Schools SEN provision is crap.

I think this is a piece of string, both in terms of parental earnings and grandparents inputs.

we earn about £160k between us gross, obviously a lot less net. No problems so far paying for two at day prep school but we have one going to a much more expensive mostly boarding school (he is going day as 1.5miles away but option to stay until 9pm if desired) next year at 13 which I’m a bit concerned about especially if the fees hike by 20% after the next election. Other one likely to go to a different school, not for financial reasons but his personality/needs!

We only have one child who is currently in a day prep, so much cheaper than say 6th form ft boarder.
75k pa. No mortgage.

I am utterly confused how a couple earning 800k, with no mortgage, doesn’t have fancy holidays or live “flashy” what ever that means!

Including uniforms and trips and music lessons etc, our school fees end up at £25-£30,000 each for our two kids.

For the two of them, then we’re looking at (a bit generously), £5000 a month. Bearing in mind the likely VAT increase, this could end up closer to £6000 a month.

So (assuming a couple of kids and similar fees) if you are bringing in £10,000 a month, you’d be looking at halving your disposable income, or possibly more.

The question for you is whether the balance of £4-5,000 a month would be enough to fund your mortgage, pension, holidays and lifestyle generally?

To live our exact life and afford two sets of school fees at the local independents we'd need 160k coming in.

Our life is a small 3 bed semi, two old cars, and uk camping holidays, food, heating, extra curriculars, the odd outing, phones, tv subscriptions, the odd takeout so a good life, not one that would be scrimping in anyway.

As pp have said it depends where you live and what sort of school. Local independents and a non-London house quite possibly very different from London costs. Thankfully that period of our life is over, but five years ago we were paying 27k a year on one child's school fees alone (before extras) out of taxed income. Central London, highly selective school. Two professional salaries, no grandparent help or bursaries and a hefty London mortgage. It wasn't brilliant but it was manageable. So Yodood's figures of 5k a month for 2 children feel about right to me.

35% of your take home pay on fees, that is if you only have two, closer to 50% once they get to senior. That feels like too much to me.

30-50% of take home feels OK to me if no mortgage? (Assume no grandparents and around £30k per child per year)

@Lovethatforyouhun we know people like this at our prep. Can be massive mortgage. So little cash spare but massive house.

Couple of questions to OP.

First, how many kids are we talking about? Clearly the level of income needed is different if you have one kid compared to half a dozen.

Second, you have posted this on the Boarding section of MN, but you don't mention boarding. At most schools there is a big difference in fees for day and boarders.

I would say that at your level of income one child in a day school would be no problem at all. Four kids full boarding would be unmanageable.

In response to those people that question the benefit of private schooling, I would agree that in the majority of cases, an academically gifted child will succeed in any good school, be they state or independent/private/public. I would also suggest that where a child struggles academically, many state schools are more well equipped to provide support than some independent schools, though clearly this varies widely from school to school.

However, if your child's passion lies in sport, music or drama, I do think that this is likely to be prioritised and encouraged more at an independent school, though again there will be exceptions.

As to cost, I would say that for a decent day school the basic fees would be #25k-#30k per year, and for a boarding school #35k-#45k, so say #2k-#2.5k or #3k-#4k per month respectively, per child. On top of this I would add #200-#300 per month for extras, including trips, music lessons etc, not including big items like residential trips and sports tours. They really add up.

This is per child remember.

Apologies that my computer seems to prefer a # over a pound sign!!!

Independent school is not for the faint hearted, and this will inevitably take money that could be spent on fun family stuff, or your retirement, and there are great state schools out there.

But if it is feasible, there are real benefits from a good independent school. Not from a rubbish one obviously, and they are out there too.

Really difficult question I know, and we made different decisions for each of our kids. Good luck!

This is a very difficult question to answer. I think there is a lot of luck in life. I married DH when I was 25 and he was 38, he had a very high earning job in the City and earnt about £100k to £150k plus bonusses. He had a 2 bed flat in St Katherine’s dock when we met which he’d brought quite cheaply about 10 years before and sold for £1.2 million whereas I came from a very ordinary family and went to a comprehensive. After we married we lived in Greenwich and I became a SAHM, we had four children 2 sons and 2 daughters, we lived in various house in and around London making a profit on each house we sold. His dad had had various businesses in Yorkshire (where DH is from) and had holiday lets and student houses and he used to sell one occasionally and give the money to DH and his sister to avoid inheritance tax when he died. DH has always been good with money and invested in property like his dad and stocks and shares so we have always had a very good lifestyle despite sending the 4 children to private school. As I was a SAHM they didn’t go till they were 5 but each of them stayed on till they were 18. They all went to the same school which was fab and got a really rounded education so I would recommend it if you can afford it as there's Respect, Discipline. Good teaching and a broad curriculum. Our eldest wasn't that academic but very nearly became a pro rugby player (Injury) but now has his own business and our eldest daughter plays the cello to a very high standard – I don’t think they would have got those opportunities in a state school. We did live in Seer Green in Bucks for a while and know the grammar schools are very good but by then the children had settled.