How many hours do you have to work to pay for one set of school fees?

[twentypence]

Went to a school open day today, then did the maths and was surprised.

I would have to work 190 hours a year, which is 5 hours a week term time only.

So anyone else want to work out how many hours they have to work to pay for a years fees (just fees not extras and uniforms). Or am I just really boring.

Interesting thread, but I think you'll find mny people already have to work far more than that to pay all their essential bills!

I would have to work a full 38 week I think, I worked it out a while ago...

I'd have to work about 70 hours I think to make the school fees amount net of tax...

I've been thinking of working to cover one child's fees but realistically I'd have to earn at least 10k minimum (gross), plus if all year round, extra to fund childcare during holidays etc (actually for 2 children ). Haven't broken that down into hours but have yet to find anything suitable part time to achieve that rate prorata.

All depends on the school fees really doesn't it. One of the prep schools I worked in charged a basic of just over £400 a week term time only, excluding extras for trips, uniform, sports equipment etc .

Mind you, it did pride itself on its expensiveness!

Don't forget that the fees come out of taxed income too. The extras are significant as is uniform, sports equipment, trips etc

I used to be amazed when I worked out:
Many families had (say) 3 children at school. Thats approximately £45,000 a year minus extras. What must their incomes have been pre tax to allow them to have had that much 'disposible' income after tax to spend on their chidrens education. Particularly when they also had the rest of the lifestyle to go with it - houses all over the place, amazing holidays, nannies, multiple cars ...

Given that the answer depends on how much you get paid per hour plus how much your school fees are, there will be varying answers. For me, given that I have low paid work and expensive school fees, I have to work 27 hours per week to cover them (net of tax, NI and pension).

Luckily my dh's income covers everything else.

I would need to work about 110-115 hours to cover DD's annual schools fees, based on next year's fees. DH would need to work quite a lot less though.

Actually that should be a bit more. Miscalculated reduction for tex/NI.

The money I make at the moment basically pays the mortgage (we have a joint account - so it doesn't really IYSWIM) but it was an amount I set myself as a target to earn. Thats gross, as I am self employed working out net is kind of complicated as some of the mortgage is tax deductable, and the tax year, my rates review time and the school year are all different.

So working out that 5 hours extra per week would pay for ds to go to private school seemed quite manageable. Which surprised me.

I'm amazed you can earn enough in just 5 hours a week - either your fees are low or you are very well paid ! What do you do as a matter of interest , I'm open to suggestion !

OK, twenty pence, I've done some calculations and to work just 5 hours a week, you need to be earning £45 a hour gross

Am I correct?

By working 3days a week on average for a year I've put aside enough which should see 2 children through school for 5 years, though the exact timing will depend on rate of fee increase and rate of interest (so far I've assumed 9 and 5 respectively). Sarbanes Oxley came along at just the right time for fees planning.

but none of this is real life as that doesn't include any living expenses to live whilst you are earning the money, or childcare costs to cover whilst you are out earning the new few years money

Well mine was net of childcare and tax. I wouldn't have worked otherwise so this was all put in a school fee pot. Not so much use when they're at secondary sschool at £15k per year but we'll cross that bridge later...

That's when we need those fee-reducing scholarships eh ladymuck

Actually I've worked it out, but what is this, a 'look how much I do or don't earn' thread?

Hardly, wealthy women don't need to work to pay the school fees

No it's not a "look how much I earn" thread. I was surprised that's all.

I'm in NZ so fees are nowhere near to UK fees. Based on someone estimating me at 45 pounds an hour I would say that they must be around a third!

I suppose I saw it as like the Big Mac Index - I wanted to know how the fees compared in some sort of other measure than just "wow, fees for schools in NZ are really affordable if you divide them by 3 and compare with the UK"

hence my method.

There wouldn't be any childcare expenses - as he would be at school.

600 hours a year, which is 17 hrs a week, term-time only, I think. But I have 3 DC, so for all 3 that'd be 50 hours work a week if term-time only, in fact. And wouldn't cover extras, either.