How much do you earn??

[Limpetsmum]

I know this sounds very rude but I just dont get how people afford private education.
My husband and I have good jobs and probably earn a take home wage of £6000/month between us ie after tax, student loans, pension etc. And that's with doing extra Hours to top up income. We both work full time and are exhausted!
Childcare comes to £2000/month. Mortgage current £1000 (but likly to go up when we move soon). Bills guessing around £600. We have no savings but have investments in property.
I would love to privately educate our kids and our combined wage will probably go up by about £1000/month in a years time - but I struggle to see how we would afford private education. I don't think we can for 3 kids.
But having said that, on paper we earn good money and I just don't get how others afford private education.
Those who privately educate - do you earn a lot more than us - or have you come into money/inheritance to fund education?
Sorry to sound so rude by asking the question but I presume as it's anonymous I might get some replies! Maybe we're just really bad at managing finances....

Well if you sent them to private school, I assume you wouldn't have the £2,000 monthly bill for childcare.
Most private schools (normal ones) are about £9-12,000 a year. That's easily covered in your current childcare costs - for 2 children - not 3!

Yes - we worked out we could afford private ed for 2 but decided to 'enrich our lives' by having a 3rd!
We have a nanny so childcare costs won't go down significantly until all kids are in education - when we will then end up paying more overall for private ed if go with this option. It would just be nice to enjoy our money, not have to work overtime and spend it on irresponsible things at times instead of watching our purse strings for the next 18 years.

Sibling discounts?
Bursaries?
Partial/full Scholarships?
Relatives helping out?
Releasing equity from investments or using the income from them?
Lower housing costs?
Lower living costs overall?
Larger household income?

In my case, our household income is higher, we have savings and our children are spaced in a way that meant we weren't paying for 3 lots of education at once, though we are paying for 2 lots at present (secondary & university).

I do think family size and planning of that (inc age gaps in my case) is a factor in affordability for most. It might be unrealistic to expect to be able to fund 3 out of your 'pot' and you may have to look into scholarships etc and take the chance that your other children might not qualify and may be unable to attend the same school as their sibling. Does that bother you? To what extent? Enough to prevent you putting the first in? What if child one qualified for a partial bursary but the second didn't? Can you afford to pay 2.5 or more sets of fees or do you choose to send the 3rd to a non fee paying school if they don't qualify for bursary or scholarship?

What are the state options like in your area? Have you looked around and compared them with the private options? Are you getting value for money in the private sector? Is their sufficient 'uplift' in whatever factor you are looking for to make it worth the financial sacrifice ?

Fuck. THERE. IS THERE SUFFICIENT

We worked abroad for several years to save on private education. I must admit it has not always been the most pleasant places.

One child. Large bursary.

Take home is circa 3000/mth but still manage to have 1 at private (lots of bills/mortgage) . It is possible though, we have to be very careful.

Husband brings home £5,300 month, mortgage is £1,300, bills and food £1,300. Car loan £300. We will have £1k month left after school fees for clothes, uniform, petrol, Christmas/birthdays, eating out, house maintenance, car maintenance. We will have to keep an eye on finances, and won't be going on holiday for years. It's a tough decision to go private. One 8 yr old child who is starting private school in Sept costing £12k pa.

We didn't pay for primary only secondary. Both children (six year gap) got scholarships, but we were set up to pay. Only had one year when had to pay for both, but didn't have nanny by then. How did we do it? No expensive holidays, no new car for 10 years, saved like mad from when they were small and didn't buy a bigger house when interest rates came down, but overpaid our mortgage instead.

No help from parents/grandparents

Definitely worth it but were very open with children about what we were doing and why.

The reality is that whilst you say "my husband and I both have good jobs" you don't really earn enough for private education - certainly not for three and absolutely not if you want to "enjoy our money, not work overtime and sometimes spend irresponsibly"

Oldestmum: was the scholarship means tested? We have a decent household income - but like you, won't be holidaying etc. so although we can sort of afford the fees, we will be making sacrifices. Do you know what income level would justify a means tested scholarship?

Past perfect - completely true. It's ridiculous isn't. Our gross income between the two of us is about £180k and if we can't afford private education - who can?!?

Scholarships aren't means tested but bursaries are.

Scholarships are generally for 5/10/20% and v rarely up to 50%. They are only awarded to the highest achievers for academics, sport and music.

Bursaries can be up to 100% - and are sometimes combined with scholarships.

Our monthly income is a little higher than yours OP (but not much). We have saved since DC were born. They both started in state primary to allow us to continue saving. We are now almost mortgage free and have a couple of years fees saved as a buffer. DC both have scholarships but anything above 10-15% is means tested, so although they help it doesn't make a huge difference.

Thank you mertonmama

If it is a "means tested" scholarship it is really a bursary (and all the forms are likely to be very similar to assess assets). Scholarships now are frequently worth less than a bursary (e.g. for schools around us a scholarship is worth upto 10%). However, in somecases, a child has to have a scholarship to get a bursary. The bursary can be worth a lot more than the scholarship it is attached to.

I should qualify the tax man has had a field day with us as husband gets business set up. So probably net monthly incone is around £7200 month once that settles down.

sorry, cross posted!

Lifeisbetter - I think the cut off for bursaries is typically about £75K gross household income - i.e. at that point you wouldn't be eligible.

Limpet - our income is about yours and we can afford it but mainly because a) we paid off our mortgage about 4 years ago and haven't bought a bigger house b) we got an early and good start on the housing ladder c) very canny DH who has made good investments d) DS1 and DS2 went state till year 3 and DD1 at state until year 6.

Oh and one car and no fancy hols of course!

Even for 3 it may well be manageable once your income rises (as per your above post). Is there a particular school you like? How happy are you with your children's current schooling? Only you can decide what benefits your family most.

I think cut off for bursaries can be upto 100,000 for one child (school dependent). This bar would be raised, I would assume, for more than one child.

limpet I'll be frank I earn several times the salary of you and DH and I still wonder whether fee paying is 'sensible'.

Our 3 DC are currently at state school (primary), but we will be able to afford private schools for secondary if we decide we want to. Our gross combined income is about the same as yours OP, but with DH's bonus (variable - but has been good for the past couple of years so we've put most of it aside) on top of that.