Do you use one salary to pay for private school?

[TurkeyDinosaurs]

We're not on a high combined income £65k, but we really want to send our 2 dc private in secondary school. I was wondering how common it is for a family to use almost all of one person's income to do this. For example, one income is £30, other is £35 and 2 dc at private would be £24k pa. It would mean we'd be living on a household income of £41k obviously. Does anyone do this and does seem like a crazy sacrifice? Can you afford any sort of holidays or days out on this? I went to private so I want to give my children the same ideally.

Duckie: so one child to house, clothe, feed, by birthday and Christmas presents for, pocket money, phone / computer outlay, pay for on holiday etc etc. And half the school fee bill.
Very different outgoings on the same salary.

If OP plan carefully, it's doable. As you mentioned, there are still a few years left, and there will be a gap that you only need to pay for 1. I would suggest you to start to save some money now. For one side, this can give you experience of a tight budget,and on the other side It's better to have a big pot saving aside. I won't be able to take the pressure if without a big saving cushion.

Whilst 5% school fee rises per year sounds about normal, we accepted a place at a private school for our DD1 and the fees rose 7% before we even arrived at the school. That was another £1k to find per year, before we even started!

Out income.slightly over double and we have just pulled our ds out of private prep into the state sector.

I felt sick at doing it but what a relief.

As.someone else said it is a.snowball effect that just grows and grows and once.you are in it is v v v difficult.to get out. We could.afford.ds.but with dd starting it.was.foing to hurt.

Also I really do believe that housing costs are one of the biggest issue our children will face. I'm.thinking I'd rather save a deposit for the children and buy them a car.....

I agree *blankscreen- state+ hobbies etc+extra tutors+money for a house deposit/vocational studies as a young adult/driving lessons is better than throwing every last penny at private schools (which are rarely that much better than a decent state)

As a child at private for a while, I truly noticed a heirarchy based on wealth and a strangely unhealthy obsession with it (plus rumours that the girls whose parents made donations were the prefects etc)

My parents were probably in the middle /lower wealth wise, it wasn't the differening wealth that bothered me (am hopelessly unmaterialistic) but the obsession with who had a swimming pool/pop star neighbour etc felt tedious and vacuous

I switched back to state, got stellar grades and into an elite university where I then beat all my privately educated counterparts hollow. Seems to me that private education is more about the "socialising" aspect than any real academic advantage

Definitely not for 2 kids and I wouldn't send one out of 2 children on an income of £65K. I would even hesitate on that income if I only had one child unless I was wholly committed to increasing my income. Everyone's priorities are different so there's no wrong or right. I wouldn't like to live so close to the bone financially with the constant pressure of paying school fees pervading the decisions of daily life and putting other pleasures out of reach.

We've been using one income to pay the fees for two kids for a few years now. The well-above-inflation annual rises are making it ever harder.

I think it's not only about what you earn now, but about long-term stability. Even if you can afford the fees now, are you sure you will still be able to afford them in, say, 10-15 years? So much can change in such a long time.

Your sector may change radically. If you have a shop or business and don't own the premises, the rent may become unsustainable. In my area, the Dulwich Estate (a 'charity'! Which distributes most of its income to posh 'independent' schools in Dulwich!) hiked the rent of a toy shop by, a believe, some 70%, driving it out of business. Imagine that - you have a decent business, then all of a sudden the landlord wants 70% more in rent.

A competitor may drive you out of business. Think of all the small shops driven out of business by online shopping, etc.

Or you may be in a professional job that pays well now, but is unlikely to last till your retirement. The FT had a story a few months ago with a title along the lines of 'where are all the 40-something?"

SouthLondonDaddy is right to some extent.

We started paying, in Central London, because state options were not good. (They are better now, but still not great.) It did not bother us not having money for a new car, home improvements or anything but basic holidays.

But we always had a Plan B if it became too much, including moving to somewhere cheaper with a longer commute but better state schools, or hoping they were really clever and then focusing on, and tutoring for, grammars, perhaps moving to Kent or Kingston. It was not uncommon for neighbours to rent in a good catchment for a year or two....often professing that this was because "they did not believe in private schools".

If you can manage you should also consider job security. And now, at the end of the process, some friends are frantically playing catch up on savings needed for retirement.

Some independent schools offer bursaries for under 70k salary.