How much do you need to earn to pay for private school?

[PfizerFan]

From experience, do you reckon it is doable if both parents earn around £60k?
One child, not a huge mortgage.
What are people's experiences of this, with all the extras?
Not talking about myself, just wondering..

I earn less than 60K, DH earns (or earned) slightly more. We used state for primary years in order to save up 3 years of fees for secondary. Only 1 DC too.

It really depends on your other outgoing ie our mortgage is only around £600 per month which makes it possible. We wouldn't be able to afford it if mortgage was more than that.

DD was awarded a scholarship for Yr 9-11 which is tiny ie 5% but does help mitigate VAT.

Extras aren't much: bus, uniform and trips but trips are optional and not all kids go.

VAT has made it tight though and we can't afford 6th form without a bursary.

Should be depending on your outgoings. We did it on DH single salary, so higher tax take, with two kids, fairly cheap day schools though. Low mortgage, second hand uniform, etc etc

You need to make a list of income and outgoings. You will see how much money you have left.
Looks at the school fees of all the schools you like the look of and check websites for open day's as some will be soon.
Three schools I know of added 3%, 7% and 5% to the fee's this year. Senior school is more expensive than preparatory school from my experience.

No personal experience but we earn slightly less and think we could have managed private secondary education for 1DC but we have 3 so it wasn’t an option.

Depends which school. Some day schools can be as much as £15k a year. Others outside of Londons/south east can be closer to £7-8k a term.

It really depends on the fees and lifestyle. We earn more and couldn't afford it but I am also saving for uni & house deposits and have more than 1 dc.

It really depends on your other outgoing ie our mortgage is only around £600 per month which makes it possible.

We are in London so don't have a mortgage like this.

@twistyizzy does your DH not earn anymore? Is that why you have a bursary? Ignore if that's nosy.

We are having to sell our house to keep the children in their school. Day school in London, senior school 30k per year. Prep 24k. It’s ridiculous now. Would not make the same choices if we were starting again now but we don’t want to disrupt the kids.

Well no but not everyone lives in London and OP didn't specify where in the country. The Q was "is it doable" so in my circumstances yes it is

Both of you on 60 K, yes it’s doable. How long it’s doable for I don’t know. London school fees have leapt up in recent years.

Depends what school and how many kids. Not unheard for over 10k a term for a London prep now but elsewhere you might get away with 15k a year.

I'm not against private but personally can't really justify 30k per dc when life is so expensive now. But we do have access to good states.

We are in Yr 9 and he has just been made redundant in a challenging job market. Sorry, we can only do 6th form IF we get a bursary. So not a worry at the moment but will be in couple of years time. Apologies if my previous sentence didn't make sense

@twistyizzy I actually should have said we are younger, as that impacts mortgage as much as location these days.

And that's the key thing, if we had access to good state we may not have chosen independent.
Unfortunately it's such a postcode lottery with regards to good state schools. We live in the NE which has yet again come bottom of table for GCSE and A levels, our local state secondary only has 20% of Yr 11s getting 5 x grade 5 GCSEs.

I would look at the schools in your area to see if you can afford them, as it massively varies.

I went to a tiny private school in midlands with no facilities. For year 7 and 8, it is pretty much the same cost as our nursery in the South East.

Yes definitely, we are late 40s plus live in NE so cheaper housing

@twistyizzy I'm sorry to hear that.

Not worth trying on that salary unless you live somewhere with a v cheap mortgage, v cheap private schools and terrible state options.

Much better to do State Plus - best comprehensive you can find and use the money for extra curricular, tutors and nice life experiences.

Thank you, hit with VAT + redundancy at around same time! It's been tough

It is south london, and fees are about 5k a term (so 15k a year). I think it might be doable... but maybe not worth it?! Hello no holidays!

Unfortunately it's such a postcode lottery with regards to good state schools. We live in the NE which has yet again come bottom of table for GCSE and A levels, our local state secondary only has 20% of Yr 11s getting 5 x grade 5 GCSEs.

We moved to an area of outer London with good secondaries which was cheaper than where we lived before in inner London. Lucky to have that option though.
That is a shocking statistic so completely understand why you would seek an alternative. To put it in perspective the secondary we are looking at gets 80% so very fortunate.

wishing you better days @twistyizzy

@PfizerFan is that at secondary or prep?