4 kids and private school

[WinkyWinkola]

at £10k p.a.

How much would you have to earn to send all of them and each of them, please?

[silverfrog]

to put 4 kids thorugh private school at £10k p.a. you need a spare £60k after tax, imo. to pay for extras, etc.

but that doesn't take into account fee rises.

so, if you add in mortgage, food, general living costs, you're looking at earning a hell of a lot more that £70k.

at one point, dh needed to earn a minimum of £110k to just pay for his first two children - school fees and maintenance etc. that was before he even started to think about living somewhere himself...

[WinkyWinkola]

Bl**dy hell. That's pots and pots of £.

[chopchopbusybusy]

Muppets has made my day!
On subject though, many people don't pay school fees directly from earnings. Inheritance, savings, help of grandparents and remortgaging are all alternative ways of paying.

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

Sigh. We're actually debating all these costs as to whether to have a 4th child now.

Dh is adamant he wants to have our dcs privately educated and to have a 4th therefore would be "financial suicide." He's on a good salary mind and is about to inherit £200k from a relative. I don't get why it's financial suicide.

I think find a good state school.

I'd love a 4th but because he wants to private educate, I can't.

[RunforFun]

I think most people do actually pay fees out of earnings.

The other alternatives which are so often banded about such as grandparents helping out are not common in my experience. I have never met a single person who freely admits that. Maybe they keep it quiet... I dunno.

I would think you would need to be earning around the £300k mark to comfortably afford 4 through the system.

LOL at muppets

[emy72]

We have 4 and have done the maths, which means we'd need one of us earning at least 70k gross to cover just the fees, for the next zillion years.

We have friends who are making the sacrifices with 3, and seeing their experience first hand, I think I am too selfish to put myself through that level of stress and sacrifice. We'll still need to move to get to a decent state secondary, but moving house it's not going to cost near what we'd have to spend if they went private.

[stillstanding]

ItsGrimUpNorth, I want a third but for the same reasons don't think we can. Makes me very sad indeed.

[darleneoconnor]

the 4th went free at my old school, there were families there with 5 kids!

itsgrim- Could you not just space out your Dcs so they're not all in school at the same time?

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

Darlene, not a chance of spacing them out that way. I'm knocking on a bit and then there's university fees to pay now.

I don't know why I find it so hard to move on past the not having number 4. I think I resent dh a bit for insisting on private school being so very important to him and all the while, I feel like someone is missing from our family.

I mean, he's on a good salary. How much does he have to earn before he thinks it's ok. Grrr.

[chopchopbusybusy]

RunForFun, maybe they do keep it quiet then. I can think of several families whose school fees are paid by grandparents. I also know a fair few who have remortgaged.

[circular]

It's not as clear cut as that.

Say you have X years from when the first starts till the last finishes - they won't ALL be at school for the whole X years. You may have a few VERY expensive years if they are all at senior school today.

You need to so some projection spreadsheets, allowing for pre-prep / prep /senior costs. Maybe factor in a 5% increase each year.

If you have a few years before the first starts, or in 'cheaper' years there is surplus income, then you can save this towards the later years.

[emy72]

Not all private schools give discounts, I was told by 2 of the 4 we visited that they do not offer discounts for any siblings. The other two offered 10% for the third and fourth, which let's face it is not a lot when you're paying 40k a year.

[mumoverseas]

I did a very basic calculation last year on what I've spent on DC1s school fees over the years. He went to prep school at age 4 and is now in U6. He has had scholarships for part of the time and DH's company paid a contribution and it still worked out at approximately £86,000 Needless to say DC3 and 4 are going to our local state school

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

My husband and I did not have a very good experience of education and at the time we worked in sectors where very few of our friends used state education. We assumed we would get the best education by paying. We spaced our children out so we could afford the fees, about five years between each.

When I started to work as a teacher we realised that the gap between state and independent could not justify the cutbacks we would need to continue paying the fees and maintain our standard of living. We still pay for our stepson but our other children are now in a state school.

Surely it is better to have a child and state educate them than not have a child.

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

I would say that my income as a teacher covers our living expenses. Even with DH earning in excess of 100K we could not afford to pay for four sets of school fees now.

[ohmyfucksy]

Get a job in a private school, then you get a serious discount for your own children at the school and sometimes freebies

[mrsravelstein]

chopchop the grandparents scenario is a common one at ds1's private school too... as is the 'living in a considerably smaller house in a not so nice area in order to pay for it' scenario...

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

I could get a job in a private school, I did part of my training in a private school as that was part of my plan. However I did the second part of my teacher training in a state secondary and loved it. I guess I am lucky that my children are in excellent state schools so there is no need.

[MmeBlueberry]

I had six kids until last year (eldest now at uni :relief:).

[magicmummy1]

A friend of mine went to a very famous private school. So did each and every one of her eleven siblings.

I can't imagine how her parents managed to pay for it!

[WinkyWinkola]

Mme Blueberry, did you put them ALL through private school?

[Loshad]

we have 4 at indi school - even when they were all at the same school, no discounts.
Only a few very expensive years - whilst we have 3 in seniors

[FunnysInTheGarden]

£500k plus for it to be comfortable. Don't think you could find a private school for £10k pa

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

Westbrook Hay is £10k pa but is prep only.

[Pedallleur]

Assuming your children go private then it's likely they will go to University and that will be £9k plus. So 3 x children could be in secondary education at approx.£30k per year from 11-21. If they overlap then obviously £30k+ per year plus the extras. However, Eton is I think £30k per year so I'll guess the others are the same. I'd say you need an income (gross) of at least £250k because you will prob. live in area to match so the mortgage/lifestyle will be high (assumption). You may also need to consider life insurance if you don't have it to cover the school fees/mortgage etc should the worst happen.