How much should you be on to afford private education for two children?

[gemloving]

How much money do you earn to put two children through private education?

We're on 150k combined and I know it's quite low to put 2 children through private education but has anyone made it work? Would my children be the "poor" kids at the school? We need to apply for schools for my eldest this year as he will start in September 2023.
My youngest is only 8 months. I don't want to rely on it but am quite sure I'll get promoted in 2023/2024 which would add around 20k (pre tax).

We only have our mortgage and no other debts.

It might be nicer for the kids to go to a state school but then we can afford nice holidays etc. One of my friends suggested a church school but I don't like the idea of going to church for the sole purpose of getting my child into a certain school. It doesn't seem right.

It would be very tight I think, how big is your mortgage?

We’re on a bit less and our mortgage is about £2k a month. Weve run the figures and think we could only afford private for 1 and that was with significant grandparent help, without a major sacrifice in lifestyle / pension savings.

Given your eldest is young, save as much as you can now and then when they hit 11, you’ve already got a decent cushion? I probably wouldn’t do private all the way through

Depends on where you live (private school outside of London are much cheaper) and your outgoings. And if you get any family support.

You really need to look at making a proper budget. Factor in that school fees rise above inflation.

I personally find it mind blowing that £150K should be considered "tight".

@Mushrooms0up yes, it's about the same and no other debts. We have two in nursery soon which is £2k a month almost.

I’m on about £135k (depends on my bonus) and we’ve run the numbers for one at private school for secondary only and can do it if we need to. We couldn’t manage two, our mortgage is big though it obviously depends on your other outgoings.

@RedskyThisNight I would never say we are not fortunate to earn a salary like this. I agree, it is mind boggling!

It sounds low to me. I've never lived anywhere without excellent primary schools so even if I had your income I'd have only picked private school for secondary school.

What are the state schools like where you are?

My friend is a single parent on 55k and has two children in private. She does get some bursary help for them but not a huge amount. Key thing for her is that she inherited her house so no mortgage and her local state schools are dire. She has not a penny of spare cash however and some grandparent support can be necessary

At primary age, if you have a decent local school, I'd go for that and save for secondary if you need it.

Interestingly, my DD's best friends (twins) were in state school with her for years through primary before going private. Academically, DD is quite ahead of them and is more settled with better resilience. But this is in a v good state secondary. Their outcomes are marginally better than the nearest private. So it's not necessarily always the best choice.

Would it be all the way up until 18?

Our combined income is higher (around 250k) but we have a high mortgage and full time nursery fees. We intend to send DS and his sibling (currently pregnant) to prep school but we are in a grammar area and hope that they will transfer to grammars in Y7.

Surely it depends on how much your mortgage is? In London where I live, most people in that income bracket (but most likely higher) have a 3 bed+ family home which would cost around £1 million. So mortgage would easily be £3000 every month and it may be hard to afford 1 child in private school let alone 2. But yet at the same time, people who bought property early in their 20s and are now in early 40s due to having children later may have a v small mortgage due to equity building through the years and property being much cheaper 10 years ago even for terraces in nice London areas..

I calculated it before and on your income, I could afford a 600-750k 3 bed flat and 1 child in private school, taking in mind that we bought at 27 and 29 in 2019, not 2009. If we bought a house, we would not be able to afford private school...

It depends on the split of your salaries to an extent (one on £120k would have that marginal 60% tax rate as no nil rate band eg), and also on security of roles - are either of you ever likely to be made redundant in 9 years of schooling and will you by that point have earned enough to have a year’s fees stashed? Is your mortgage at a fixed rate for the full term or will you be able to pay real rates of interest if / when they return?
You have a while to make the decision and earn more by that point, but on current numbers it’s very tight

If I’m honest it sounds a bit low but it’s hard to tell without knowing your mortgage figures.
We have three in private and earn about 100k more than that. We’ve had three incredible years with bonuses plus covid restrictions meant that we haven’t felt like we’ve gone without at all, but I know once everything properly opens up and school trips and activities are back things will be much tighter.
Also on this salary we are definitely one of the lowest earners in both private school which can get awkward.
If I had to go again I don’t think I would make the choices we’ve made but here we are.
The lack of diversity at the schools is a growing concern. There are many things that I’m greatly uncomfortable about that didn’t enter my thoughts when we made this choice.
I would proceed with caution.

Sounds low- I would save with the aim of putting them through private secondary- I don’t see the need to stretch for primary

@Username7521

If I’m honest it sounds a bit low but it’s hard to tell without knowing your mortgage figures. We have three in private and earn about 100k more than that. We’ve had three incredible years with bonuses plus covid restrictions meant that we haven’t felt like we’ve gone without at all, but I know once everything properly opens up and school trips and activities are back things will be much tighter. Also on this salary we are definitely one of the lowest earners in both private school which can get awkward. If I had to go again I don’t think I would make the choices we’ve made but here we are. The lack of diversity at the schools is a growing concern. There are many things that I’m greatly uncomfortable about that didn’t enter my thoughts when we made this choice. I would proceed with caution.

Only on Mumsnet could someone with £250k income and 3 kids in private school moan about being a 'lowest earner' and how it can get awkward.

Hilarious.

It depends where you are in the U.K. I live in the north and the top private schools are only 12-14k per annum so perfectly doable on your salary. We earn less than you do and have one in private and one in a grammar. In the south, my DH’s old school is now about 30k pa so a totally different story. I guess your mortgage would then be bigger too.

I tutor private school kids and I think the range of quality in the preps is large. Some is on the autare brilliant, some are very average. Secondary age, private is better for sure, unless your children are very bright, very motivated and don’t have any SENDs. Some children do amazingly at normal state schools. My eldest is at a private school really because he is on the autistic spectrum and small class sizes are better for him.

Some are brilliant (autocorrect!)

We have a combined income of approx £100k and are just at the end of putting 2 children through private secondary (one now in sixth form, one year 11). Both children will remain in private until the end of Y13, having started in Y7. School fees are approx £6.5k per child per term.

For us, it was doable because:

• we have paid off the mortgage. We remained in our relatively modest house, with lower costs rather than upsizing with all the extra expense that entails.

• we did secondary only. We are also doing 6th form, but we would have been happy to move at that point had it been necessary for financial reasons.

- we have a low cost lifestyle (not interested in gadgets/happy to drive old bangers/happy to have camping holidays/no cleaners etc) - we have a large lump sum in savings which we could have drawn on if needs be. We in fact haven't needed to draw on it, but I wouldn't have embarked on private ed for 2 without having that security in the background.

Being the "poor" ones at private hasn't been an issue at all, tbh it barely registers, and I don't think our children would consider themselves any different from their peers (who range from similar to us to multi millionaires). Apart from the uniform being more expensive, there's not really been many costs over and above what there would be at state. Things like sports/drama/orchestra etc are included in the fees.

For us it's been a great choice, but that is due to a mixture of factors, including the state school choices available and our own children's particular profiles. (we have intelligent but not necessarily super self motivated children, who fall through the net in state, because they can do averagely well without any effort. They needed the push to be working at 8/9 levels, rather than getting the 5/6 level that they could have achieved floating through without any work, but yet never raising any alarms, because they were doing "fine").

Depends
Our school fees were about £12000 (x2) per year and the extras weren’t too bad so we didnt need to earn huge amounts of money to afford them.
It’s just DS now so around £13000 per year and I earn £30k plus about £500pm from some freelance work and DH is SE but takes about £60-80k a year out of the business.

I would also say that if you have a decent State Primary available then save your money for Secondary

@CoastalWave We're in London (zone 1) my dd best friend has a driver, nanny, housekeeper and cook (its only a semi formal household as her mum likes to tell me), and indoor poor and a private jet. Shes never been on the tube.
This is my experience, and yes my choice but still not to be mocked. Also I didn't moan, I am sharing my experience which is what was asked for.
I am not sure why you need to be so mean?

We earn about £250pa. Big mortgage. We did state primary with tutoring for entrance exams from mid year 3 (about £700 a term)

Saved while they were at junior school to get a few years fees as a buffer. Also got a 5 year age gap so one is in year 11 and the other one only starting year 7 in Sept so well only have a couple of years (but the obv university for oldest.)
Honestly it's occasionally been tight. We were fine until DH was made redundant in the second lockdown- took 5 months to find work and we went through a chunk of savings. No holidays for a while now.

I don't mean to be rude or offend anyone but can I ask what proffessions you are in to be earning such large salaries? Me and my DH work hard but we are only on approx £60k (part time teacher and music team leader). Feel like I've made a wrong choice career wise! Apologies if my message comes across as nosy but I'm intrigued!

I’m a lawyer - full time.

We have an annual family income of £150k and we could only afford to have 1 child go private and we have 2 so didn’t. Saving for private secondary, but hoping for tutoring and grammar. We are in SE.

@DisneyGirl2387 my DH only began his career properly 4 years ago and is on 50k.Before that, he did masters and was abroad for a while and was also ill so he had a late start. he works in financial services. So i guess someone who started working properly in the sector at 22 and climbed the ranks would easily be on 6 figures by early 30s.