School fees

Mrtumble

We are planning to put our children through private school.

Child 1 from 2015 for 7 years - at least £80k
Child 2 from 2018 for 7 years - at least £80k.

We will partly fund this from income (joint income of £75k pa at present) but will need to borrow to fund the rest of it.

We live in a house valued at £400k but only owe £100k on it.

One suggestion is that we remortgage to an offset mortgage where we would draw down school fees as and when they were needed.

Has anyone had any experience of this mechanism for funding school fees? Can anyone recommend a product or lender who knows how to handle this sort of situation well?

And does anyone know where I can buy cheap tinned beans?

bigadaj

Try the mortgages board there are a nUmber of brokers on there that might come up with some suggestions.

It would be worth doing some modelling of income and expenditure as £160k plus interest is going to be a fair bit to pay back.

xylophone

at least £80k

This seems a very low estimate? School fees tend to go up much faster than inflation.

Does the school offer any discount for payment in advance?

Are grandparents able to assist?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2558653/The-5-sneaky-perfectly-legal-ways-Britains-richest-parents-cut-tax-bill-private-school-fees.html might be worth a read.

jimjames

Mrtumble wrote: »

And does anyone know where I can buy cheap tinned beans?

Apart from questioning whether you can really afford to spend £20k per year on school fees when your pre tax income is £75k, post tax maybe £55k? That's going to be over 30% income spent on school fees.

Do you really need private schools? Would it be cheaper to move to catchment area of better state school if you're not happy with local school?

Mrtumble

jimjames wrote: »

Apart from questioning whether you can really afford to spend £20k per year on school fees when your pre tax income is £75k, post tax maybe £55k? That's going to be over 30% income spent on school fees.

Do you really need private schools? Would it be cheaper to move to catchment area of better state school if you're not happy with local school?

Thanks. All of those options and more being considered. Fees only part funded through income - we have savings to use too.

melbury

We managed to put our son through private school (three different ones) on a very modest joint income, with a bit of help from grandparents.

Without him getting scholarships there would have been no way we could afford it, especially at the final school where he did A levels.

It is always worth looking at what scholarships are available.