When is it financially reasonable to choose private?

[magbags]

For anyone who has chosen private education for their DC,can I please ask roughly what percentage of your household income is spent on school fees? If money was no option I would definetely choose the local private primary school for DD (it's lovely) but in reality this would be a massive and long term financial stretch for us. It feels risky to choose this school when we don't have money in the bank to pay for it all (we would pay as we earn iyswim). I am not comfortable with any of the other local primaries tbh and will be slightly heart broken if we decide we can't make the leap and pay the fees. I need some advice about whether we CAN afford this school or not

I can't answer your headline question (about propotion of income), as DH and I have never fully merged our finances, so I don't know.

But you need to think carefully, and look at your DCs' education as a whole - and in a series of steps. Paying for prep school may be the most important step, in terms of setting the DCs' early experiences of, and attitudes to, school. But what about education after that? Do you have state secondaries near you that you would be happy with? Or are you looking at affordability to 18? Might it make more sense to re-examine the state options, and save up for the later years? These are personal questions which can only be answered in terms of your views on what makes a good education, and what the realistic options are for you.

Your job security and career expectations are also factors.

Also, you need to look at how much the school really costs, not just the headline fees. Are lunches and trips included? What clubs (eg ballet) are billed seperately? How much does the uniform cost? How much does late room provision cost? Then remember that school fees inflation has outstripped other indices for many years - allow 7-10% uplift pa. How do the sums look now?

Many private school parents are on middle incomes - if you do go for it, you will be far from alone in having to think hard about family budget choices all the time.

Personally, I'd go for it whilst you can if you know it's the right school for you - who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Also - if you stretch yourself financially and your child does not do well at school, how will you feel about that?

I'm not sure what proportion it is, but it's about the same as nursery care was, and covers 8-6 care as part of the fees. They have a comprehensive holiday care programme that is sensibly priced, and although there are some expensive trips on offer (like skiing), thats the same for state schools, and the normal trips don't cost a lot as they have their own minibuses

Thanks onimolap, yes saving for later years had crossed my mind but in the meantime to send DD to a school which is far from ideal would be really hard. I think I tend to set myself such high expectations in life, I just want DD to be in the nicest possible environment and to be nurtured and encouraged. However, yes that annual increase is a bit scarey.

I pay for ds's school fees out of income. I did a spreadsheet when I was contemplating sending him to private school. That covered all of primary (plan to send to state school for secondary) and allowed for average fee increases. Seeing it in black and white gave me a good indication if I could afford it long term. In the end the deciding factor was school fees were similar to childcare fees I'd pay for before and after school (private school wrapround care was less than a tenth of the CM cost). Realised I could pay the same in school fees and get a class size of 15.

Having said that I'm currently re-evaluating as I'm not sure ds is in the right school for him (don't currently have a firm picture of what would be the right school for him though).

IndigoBell if she was enouraged to find and choose something she loved I would be thrilled. I don't have any particualr expectations beyond that and wouldn't see any particular career choice as justification of the expense for example. All of that said, I do feel she is very bright and combine that with the fact she can be shy in certain situations - part of my fear in the local primary is that she is overlooked and not given the same level of encouragement

MollieO I have tweaked numbers on a spreadsheet until I'm driving myself mad. In our area, school would be more expensive than her current nursery place.

Would you say it's reasonable to spend something like 80-90% of your disposable income on school fees or am I mad to even consider it?

Sorry, to clarify this percentage would represent our position in a few years time and would cover school fees for both dc at that point. Clear as mud .

We --survive- manage on one salary now so when I go back to work we'll spend my salary on fees. So depending on fees/circs that's be c. 60% of disposable income.

80 or 90%??? What about mortgage, bills, food, clothing, transport etc?? By disposable income do you mean what you have left after you've paid all that or do you mean your net take home pay after tax and NI?

Have you any savings for the proverbial rainy day? Or more likely, the day when the car and the boiler break down simultaneously?

I dont pay for mine - they now go to state as we moved.

Fees get more expensive as children get older. If we were paying it would be about one sixth of our take home pay for 2 teenagers. Then uniform, trips et etc

Not paying has allowed us a bigger house and 2 more family holidays a year.

It is a 15 year commitment.

MollieO by disposable income I mean what's left after bills, food etc.
Onimolap not much unfortunately. We don't have all this disposable icome just now, the plan would include me increacing my hours at work to full time.

The thing is, bills/food is variable.

If you have £15k+ spare after income tax/NI and fees you can afford it.

Fifty per cent of gross.

We saved. We don't get out much.

Sorry if I'm stating the bleedin' obvious, but if you're going back to work full time, have you factored in the costs of after school care and holiday care. Private school holidays are much longercthan those of state schools, and for the weeks they don't overlap, there isn't much on offer in the way of playschemes.

Onimolap grandparents live next door but one and will help with collecting after school and holidays. I might need to factor in a short "before school" club fee though, good point.

Appletrees wow, really? That's a huge proportion.

Yes, I wouldn't recommend it. But we did save a hell of a lot. We really like a quiet life. Luckily! And it's definitely worth it.

Luckily for me both primary and secondary state schools in the area are terrific so the answer for us is that, though we can afford it, it is not financially reasonable to spend money on something we can get at high quality through the state.

I'm not trying to start an argument but I did think it was worth pointing out. :)

Pretax the school fees cost approximately 5% of our income. Post tax the percentage is higher, of course. It's not so much the percentage of your income thing though, it's the nature and extent of the other financial commitments you have

Lydwatt am happy for you . Part of the issue in my area is that our local schools are not so great. Which is why I am considerting private.

MagBags - It might make more financial sense to move house to an area with better state schools.

I'd rather pay the cost of school fees on my mortgage....

...then I do not envy your choice...

I might be tempted to look at moving too..

It would depend on the quality of the private schools in the area too and the ethos they chose to adopt

DH earns the money to pay mortgage, bills, holidays etc,, my earnings are just for school fees. . I would not go into it without a safety net of a few years school fees.

My parents stuggled to put me through private school even though I had bursaries and scholarships, they think it was worth it and so do I.

Alternative would be moving of course, or else upping you or your DH's income. Loads of people put their kids through school through earned income, some through mortgages which is not so great.

Round here moving house to be in the catchment area near a good school costs about the same as paying for private school but the catchment areas are now down to yards.