% of your salary on school fees

[Alwaystierd]

Struggling to pick schools post offer… the ones my daughter loves is the most expensive.

Am I crazy for using 7 months of my salary on private education. What do others do? Do most people find it easily affordable?

I'm confused. Most people I know thought about affordability before showing their children round schools?

I also think you are asking the wrong question. It's not just about percentage of household income it's about the overall financial picture.

I would be thinking about job security and what your plan is it one of you loses a job or can't work. And also how you will manage above inflation fee rises?

I find it hard to believe your daughter can only be happy at one particular school.

We looked at a range of schools before choosing one and all four of our children (despite having quite different personalities) have been happy there. It

You own two houses and will still have a very reasonable amount of money left over. You're fine to move forward with the school of her choice. It's only for 7 years.

Wow! That definitely justifies stretching. But that was a clear breach of the Equality Act by the school (although I think I would have done the same as you and moved my child rather than pushing a reluctant school to have them)

I spend my entire salary on school fees. Dh covers life.

Those paying for school fees while their husband pays the mortgage...

Just to highlight that my ex hired a firm of very aggressive lawyers when we split. I had paid nursery fees (which were more than the mortgage) but his lawyers tried to argue he was entitled to a significantly bigger share of the house "because he paid the mortgage".
I squashed the assertion but it did make me stop and think.

Going forward I would never put myself in that position again. DH and I pay all joint expenses out of a joint account and both pay in to it.

Based on your equity, savings and projected disposable income, I'd go for it.
And especially as you only have 1 child. You can gird your loins for 7 years.

Based on your update about having significant savings and property I'd not pick the school based on it being slightly cheaper, I'd go for the one you feel will best meet your child's needs. It's not forever and I'd much rather know I was providing the best possible start for my child than have holidays, cars, handbags etc.

I think your overall finances are very different to those implied by your first post.

In your situation, with one (?) child, so only for 7 years, I would pay for private school if it was noticeably better than the state option.

If you sold both properties, could you afford the house? Not necessarily that you should, but knowing you had that choice might make it easier to stay in the flat longer?!

It was a clear breach and I could have pushed it. And I did push on some things, like going into school every lunch to administer her insulin. But it was just a sign of things to come, everything would have been a battle and my daughter would have been made to feel like an inconvenience.

We’re very lucky to be able to afford it. And although our spending has changed to accommodate the cost. I wouldn’t say we’ve ‘sacrificed’ anything as a happy, included and safe kid is worth more than anything material we could otherwise be spending the money on.

OP this isn’t about whether you can afford it, it’s about whether you want to prioritise it. There are plenty of parents in my DDs school that spend most their disposable income on fees, then in her state school there were plenty of parents who appeared to spend the equivalent on holidays, cars and clothes. Neither is right or wrong, it’s a very personal choice based on so many different factors.

Good advice.

We already do the whole in and out of one pot approach, but theoretically speaking my whole salary goes on fees.

I wouldn't if you can get education for free! I'd spend it on holidays!

£2500 a month disposable income after fees is a lot of disposable income. And I say that as someone with a good household income and 2 kids in private school.

This is £30k spare a year, so surely you wouldn’t have to give up holidays, upsizing, and saving. Yes, you can’t have it all but you wouldn’t need to give it all up.

Personally I’d go for the school she likes. Then have good but not fancy holidays at £5k a year (especially as you can go out of term time). Then you still have £25k a year left which you could put towards a mortgage on a house if you wanted to.

I think you should go for it if you have £2.5k left over per month as disposable-that’s plenty and only for 7 years.

Have you factored in the school fees rise each year? Our fees have doubled between year 7-13.

It depends on if the school offers something that other schools don't. Is your dd highly gifted or SEN that she wouldn't flourish in any other school?

@NottsNora I work in finance so I did a spreadsheet, added 8% on for next year for NI and Business Rates and then 5% on the following years… hoping the schools start to try being more sensible with the increases following the huge VAT increase. By the time she finishes Alevels it will 9 months assuming I have minimal pay rises - any payrise going forwards falls into the 60% band so won’t be substantial. Plan is my husband will be earning significantly more in 5 years time!

no real back up for if one of us loose our jobs, he’s a surgeon and I work in finance so relatively safe jobs, we have decent critical illness policy which will cover the mortgage.

@Alwaystierd Is be doing any consulting work for industry? We pay surgeons £750 and hour in my therapeutic area.

@Pelot He’s in his first year on consultancy so concentrating on his NHS work. But yes, would consider any consultancy work. Used to do script reviews, on sets for Holby etc when he was younger but doesn’t have the time to do that anymore.

26% of household income on school fees for two children

We are in the process of trying to decide whether to commit to private school at primary level for 3 children. If we do it, fees will be around 30% of our net household income, or the equivalent of almost all of my take home pay. It’s a difficult decision!

@Faloooon if you have a decent primary school, why not go there until year school 3 or 4. We had loads of parents do that, wish I had thought of it!

We are waiting to see which school we are allocated. We are on the very edge of the catchment areas for our local state primaries, so we may not get in.

Also, my eldest is already at the nursery attached to the prep and is very happy there (silly us - but we wanted an insurance policy in case they don’t get into one of the local state schools). Plus I’m really worried that the lack of reliable wrap around care at the state schools might mean that I end up having to quit my job anyway - in which case, probate would prove less costly overall!

You had this baby young if he's only in his first year of consultancy! Are you sure you're done with kids? If so then his salary will only increase massively especially if he takes on industry work, clinical trials or private work. I really wouldn't think twice about it.

You have £2.5k left over a month? Seriously that's a salary for a huge % people.

It’s actually not that much if you want holidays and what about school trips. It’s doable but not that comfortable. When 2 dc were boarding at senior school, it was around 10% of DHs gross earnings. We didn’t go without anything.