Income vs school fees

[Kanga59]

Am on the verge of sending my son back to the private school where he did pre-nursery and nursery. I wanted our local stare primary to work out well but its just a stress and low standards of teaching.

I am however daunted by the long term financial commitment. esp as we have two children. so um wondering what % of net income do current private school families spend on their school fees. how big can that number get do you think, before its untenable?

You need to assume at least 5% year on year increase, which means the fees will double by the time your child leaves.

20% in private school fees + another in nursery. Gets higher year on year.

Can you wait until year3 now that you are out anyways?

Hmm, it depends - can you afford it for both children? Are there other options locally? Can you apply for scholarships or bursaries? Can you do it on one salary? Will you be paying both sets at the same time? What about extras like uniform and trips?

Fees are about £1k a month for us and I'd rather not say what percentage of our nett income it is but we can afford it (and would be able to on one salary) and we're only paying for one now.

It doesn't matter what percentage is. You just need to caculate how much money you need for your normal life, then add the private school fee, and then leave a bit balance for safe. The school fee increase 5-10% every year.2 children from primary school , it is a long commitment.

For 2 children, it maybe better to move to a nice area with good school.

I don't think it is easy to do comparisons. Different people have different commitments. I suggest that you do a spreadsheet and work out what your outgoings are and assume that fees increase 5% year and there are other costs of say £500. Ask yourself how you feel about it. You also need to think about your income - is it likely to go up or down?

15% of net salary for one set of senior school fees. We will be paying 2 sets of school fees in 2 yrs' time when DC2 starts senior school. This will amount to approx 30% of net income which would definitely affect our current lifestyle. However, due to long term planning, we should be able to cope since we anticipate paying off our mortgage within the next 2 years so our increase in school fees will be offset by our increase in net income. We're in our mid forties and I am inclined to be financially cautious/sensible. No help from GP's, inheritances, banker salaries, etc. We deliberately decided to invest for secondary school fees and to utilise our local state primary (not terribly good either) since we live in a non grammar and semi rural area to boot. Support at home even if only daily reading and chatting to your child goes a long way imo.

Percentage isn't really relevant since incomes differ so dramatically. If you earn a million pounds £50k its neither here nor there.

We have two in private school and pay a couple of thousand a month (for both). The senior school fees are more and when they are both there it will be costing about 30k per year from net income. That doesn't include meals/trips/uniform etc

The fees increase about 5 percent a year.

agree that % not relevant, just check if you can cover the cost. It doesn't sound that the state school is working great. also consider that from secondary private schools have bursaries and scholarships, which could reduce the fees you pay (or at least offset the fee increases). I'll probably end up spending 50% of net income on fees for two kids but that's ok because everything is covered and I do feel it is well worth it.

Coming in at about 30k a year, we have worked out the projected figure for educating till end of university and it is easily doable.
(Pending unforeseen circumstances)
Was important for me to know that we could go all through without life changing for the kids just before random exam time.

Secondary day school fees of 15k for DS. We have a net household income of 86k so this represents 17% of our net income. Together with just our mortgage, it is over 40% of our net income. We also have DD who is a few years younger. Like a previous poster, we prioritised school fees only from the secondary school stage. Both our DC attended our local state primary. When we have to pay 2 sets of school fees, our mortgage should be extremely small by then, so in theory, manageable.

Percentage really isn't a good measure.

By way of exaggerated example, if your income is 500,000 (netting you roughly 275000) then paying 150k in school fees (54 percent) still leaves you with 125k sitting in the bank for everything else. Some things are more expensive when you have a larger house (mortgage being the main one but also heating) but other things don't really change after a certain point so for example our household income is three times what it was three years ago but we still spend about the same amount on food.

You need to make sure that you can pay your mortgage/bills/food and not sacrifice enjoying life completely. You really do have to factor price increases into your calculations. One of my friends has had a real shock being told the increase in school fees for year 7 and is now considering affordability and possibly moving her DC. That's not ideal.

Two sets of school fees are likely to be setting you back at least a couple of grand a month from your net income at primary level (plus dinners, uniform, trips, music lessons, extra curricular stuff etc on top of that). It will be more for senior school. Don't be fooled either into thinking that children at independent schools don't do extra curricular stuff on top. I often see that mentioned on here as a reason for considering independent school but mine do just as many activities outside of school time as DCs of my friends who go to state school.

atticusclaw, yes it is, and the replies to my question have been helpful. Thank you everyone.

ok whatever, for us then about 10 percent for two DCs. I can't see how that helps you in the slightest since my net income is highly unlikely to be the same as yours but if you think it does...

I'd agree that % is not a particularly helpful measure. We pay about £45k in fees a year for DCx3. That represents about 40% of our net income but we have no mortgage or debt so it's very affordable.

I had been paying about a third of my income in school fees which was a huge strain. Don't forget that in reality for 13k of fees you need to earn 18 to 20k, perhaps more depending on tax bracket. If DD were to continue to senior school the cost would be 17k, about £25k before tax and impossible for us. Barring a generous bursary we are moving to state from next September and a whole host of put off house repair jobs are finally likely to catch up with us. It is amazing how 15 year old wallpaper comes back into style just as you get thoroughly bored of it and can't remember what colour it was ever meant to really be!