Funding private fees - how do you do it?

[Account18]

Interested to hear -

did you have a starting fund earmarked for fees?
or are you reliant on annual income only?
or do you have a commitment from e.g grandparents

or a mix of two/three/anything else?

Bit of a mix but no grandparent money.
DS started in P6 (Scotland) and I had 2 years saved up (£30kish) from the point we decided to send him 2 years earlier and currently pay out of income with that as a back up. DD will start in S1 and we have money in high interest savings from when we remortgaged a few years ago (£75k) to support the point where we will have 2 lots of fees. When she goes we’ll potentially also cut back on pension payments which we currently hammer quite hard.
We earn £170k between us and although we still have a mortgage we live quite frugally and manage our money in a way to allow this.

Annual bonus, there’s a partly a three-year deferred payment structure so there’s always three years of fees planned ahead.

I already had some savings, and ds, in year 5 had asked to try for a scholarship at the local independent because his friend was trying. That was the first time I even considered it so I started saving as fast as I could. I had about 4 years fees by the time ds started in yr 7 (with his scholarship).
I figured I had four years to save for gcse year. Then the school started a 6th form and I had to save more so he could stay for a'levels.

Saving meant no nights out, no foreign holidays, no coffees or meals out, no expensive clothes, no pay-tv, keeping my car until it died. I was single which made saving much easier (men are expensive).
Ds will finish this summer, happy, confident, good grades.
My mortgage finishes at the same time so helping him with university should be less of a strain.

It would seem unlikely for a school to forget there are two parents or notice they have the same address.

I’m sceptical too - if it is true then I hope the poster is found out.

Yeah TBH as soon as I replied to that poster yesterday I realised it must just have been someone lying for attention.

IHT nil rate band is £325k, potentially rising to £1m for married couples including home.

”Just enough to send DD”. That’s an expensive school!

Two both at prep now, paid for entirely out of annual income. We both work full time at well paid jobs.

I don’t believe you. Honestly, why waste everyone’s time by writing nonsense on here?

There are a few stories on here that don't add up. What a strange thing to lie about

A combination of savings (specifically saved for school fees for ~7 years before having our first child), grandparent lump sum contribution equivalent to about 1/4 of fees and some income.

April will be my last one. Quite a sense of relief. 🙂

Keep going!!

60% bursary, 20% family, 20% income. My autistic daughter battled through two different state primaries. What she needs is smaller classes and staff with capacity to help when needed. She went from 75% year 6 attendance to 100% (currently halfway through year 8). Resent having to do it but it is a fabulous school.

We pay from pension income we receive from the AF immediate pension scheme.

We have no mortgage and pay household expenses from one salary and a business we have started that is on track to mature in the next 12 months. We also have investments maturing for when youngest DC starts in a few years.

I wouldn't commit to private school fees without a guaranteed passive income because the job market is really precarious now it would give me sleepless nights.

We pay all ours from income, no help from anyone else.

When DC in yR to y6 in state school, saved up equivalent of 50% of secondary school fees from income so we were confident that we could meet secondary fees with 50% from savings and 50% from income. When cancer struck me down with DC half way through secondary and slashed my income, school immediately granted a 40% bursary so that we could pay our share from savings and the small difference was topped up by grandparents - but we were very lucky that this worked out, it could have been much worse (and I'm happily cancer free now and earning again). I am not sure this path is what I would recommend as it proved riskier than I thought it would, but in theory it works if luck is on your side.

I don’t understand this argument at all. Take mortgages/rent, for example. It’s taken for granted that (for the majority) these are paid out of monthly income and they’re literally as important as the roof over your head.

Out of income. 2 of us working full time. No earmarked savings as it was never the plan, but was a reaction to our child's needs.

Agreed. No one would say ‘I wouldn’t pay a mortgage out of income in case I lost my job’.

We paid out of income until I left my job and now it's out of the redundancy payment, only 4 payments left until he finishes school so looking forward to then.

It's really depends on whether you have a mortgage or not.

If you don't, then working to pay fees is feasible because if you lose your job then you can usually find interim work and make arrangements with the school to cover the gap until you recover.

If you are paying rent/mortgage and school fees, then you are under significant pressure to keep earning at a certain level to maintain your family's lifestyle. Any job loss or loss of earning power through illness or circumstances can significantly dent your earning potential, which means it gets harder to keep all those balls you are juggling in the air. With the current economic climate and job market, redundancy and diminishing longevity in roles is becoming more of a threat.

In this instance, housing and feeding the family becomes the priority so the first thing to go is expensive school fees. This is why it is risky without a savings cushion or passive income to rely on.

Also, given the financial pressure independent schools are now under following VAT rises, they are less likely to offer bursaries at the sizes they did before so that option of support isn't as accessible as it once was.

It is, privates are, especially if you board. I have no ethical worries about paying and saving the state system money, but even that high amount of inheritance can't cover boarding Y7 to A' Levels. No other country does this to kids who don't use their places in state sectors.
Edited to add I am a single mum - so don't get the extra benefit of 2 salaries as well as added inheritance leeway. Talk about double penalty!

Same it pisses me off that I get £150 child maintenance and 25% council tax discount and that’s, it but pay £100k -£200k plus a year in tax but don’t use NHS or education system.

And before anyone kicks off I voted Labour because I do believe in state education system and hoped they’d improve it. Too late for my kids.

Combination, I saved really hard before getting married and invested. This money stays invested, there to cover fees if it all goes wrong. Half is paid by grandparents and half from our monthly salary. This covers one child. The other is now approaching school age and we're having difficult conversations over spreadsheets about how to afford him to go as well, do we use the savings and risk it.

Fair enough. I guess it’s the big seeing that hikes it up. We have 2 at private school (but not boarding).

Paid for from savings accumulated before they started school (no help from grandparents).

I think this poster is a troll. I have seen them post on several threads incorrect information or stuff to get attention. Things like saying their child got into all the top girl preps - before children were even assessed at the schools, then claiming they knew people from the council who got them in (which again does not make sense). They also claimed KCS is super easy to get into.