how do you afford private school fees?

[beautifulgirls]

I am interested to know how you afford private school fees? Are you lucky enough to have a good household income or do you subscribe to any of the school fees investment schemes that exist? If you subscribe, how good are they, which do you use? We will make sure we afford it for our kids, but it will stretch us on our current income unless we can make the money go further somehow. I fully intend to work more hours once they start school so that should help too, but things are not always that simple.

I'm not certain what you mean by 'dull' porcupine. Is it some of the references to having holidays in Britain or not 'going out' a lot?

The way that we look at life is that we have to be inventive and take a view that the kids will only be in school for a few more years. We hardly lead dull lives and most of the less well-off private school parents are my sort of people. Interesting people with interested kids tend to make their own fun happen.

It is my opinion that I would rather fund my kids education than other businesses profits by spending my cash on fashion, cars etc. My priorities lie in different directions than most advertisers would like. I just feel very, very lucky to have this opportunity and wish that everyone had the same possibility open to them.

I would like my children to go to private school, but we wouldn't be able to afford it unless both of us worked ful time constantly. I went from state school education into private school education and I can say from experience that the latter is better in every way.
My children will go to state school, and as long as they are happy, that is my main concern.

lol at people being tempted to be a teacher to get kids into private school

llllooooooooollllll

Fio, that's no way to describe your weekend employment
So, what's it like to relocate from one of Britain's only earthquake hotspots to the other one then?

Re the fee increases. Our IFA told us to budget for 10% increase per year. This year's rise was 8%, so pretty much around that mark. We have allowed for this in our financail planning for the future.

oh no. don't have a boring life, moving out of London was the BEST decision we ever made, less crime, less grime, less pressure on schools, less traffic, less noise, fewer arseholes on public transport, etc. i have lots of lovely new friends.

yes if you sell your body through a pimp to get your child into a private school, you need a therapist, but most of us don't sound like we do that, we just shift our lives and finances around so that our kids don't have to go to the shittiest schools on earth !

that isn't dull, it is commonsense, a miserable, bullied child in a substandard school is hardly going to make for a happy family.

fio - that is really immoral, any excess breastmilk should go to a baby milk bank at your local hospital, not given to some poor bastard for a fiver !

Re the pension. The £47 is an old personal pension I took out when I just finished uni and my company didn't offer a pension to temps.

The company I work for now has a company pension scheme that is deducted staright from my salary so it isn;t counted in my figures as I never see that money. I kept the other running as a top up. Dh is in a teacher's pension scheme straight from his salary.

pointydog - kids are already there, just in my "odd" moments i consider it currently do adult education so not really too wild a step, but i think one too far atm

We don't have dull lives, my children have a fantastic time. We went on a family day out the weekend before last to a nearby resevoir. We had a picnic on the grass, played football, played in the park and on the playground, then the children made bird feeders out of pinecones (the RSPB were there. End result, two grubby, happy tired chidlren.

We went on holiday at Easter to a caravan site just outside Nottingham. They watched all the watersports on the lake, played endlessly inh the field on their bikes, made friends with the other children on the site. Went to SHerwood Forest to look round the visitor centre. My children are happiest in a field with a ball or bike, who needs expensive foreign holidays. In the summer we go to a seaside resort, last year was Llandudno, year beforet that Weston super Mare. They made sandcastles and flew their kite on the beach. They had a fantastic time. They love caravanning.

IN answer to the thread title i sell crack to street whores.

selling crack to whores is very lucrative i imagine, do you pay taxes as a self-employed ?

Of Course, Do you know how much time you get for tax evasion?!

island - are you margaret beckett ?

yes, even more time than for selling an illegal drug to the oldest profession !

Margaret Beckett??? She's a politician yes???

yes, the foreign secretary, the one that looks like a dog's dinner, she loves caravaning, does it very summer apparently with security following her around in another caravan behind !

Oh right, hmmm not sure if that is a good thing liking the same type of holiday as a politician!!!!!

no worries, i have done it a few times, it is great fun, i was just kidding !

All these comments are very interesting- but Bingowingo- if you are drawing out £4500 each month NET that would equate to over £9000 a month if you were paying tax/NI as an employed person, which would mean that your annual income was over £100K. So to say that your income is £50K is untrue you have to add onto that all the tax you pay- and also being in business you can. A salary of around £50K equates to a monthly net income of around £2500 after tax etc.

All very interesting as dh and I are trying to work out how we can put three through private education!
At the moment ds is at local state primary but is not being stretched at all. He has been reading the same books over and over - Based on what I have seen, I don't agree that state primary schools are fine if your child is very bright as they may well just end up getting bored - that is unless there is provision for them within the teaching. What is happening in our school is that there is obviously a baseline that they all need to get to during the reception year. Looks like ds has reached it and so at the moment he is just treading water until year 1. This is our experience - others may be different of course.
But this is why we are looking at private which is a HUGE committment because again, we fall into the middle income bracket and we have three kids close together

Sorry feeling ratty, bad day.

Your DS is in year 1 and you are worried he is not being stretched... Relax give the child a childhood - there are other important things that your child needs to learn, social skills, being part of a community etc..

Lord save us from over aspirational parents .

don't agree that seeing your child getting/retaining the same book over an extended period is "over aspirational".

save us from ratty, opinionated slackers

am a bit embarrassed by vehemence of last post

kaz33, totally disagree with you but should have found a more considered way of expressing my disagreement. apologies.

don't worry bossykate - I was rather rude as well. Had horrible day and decided to vent on my pet subject of anti private schools. I think I should get a life...