On the Breadline on £190k a Year

[Deleted User]

ukcarper wrote: »

We're in Surrey still get 3 beds for less than £300k.

We moved in 4 years ago, the house cost £300k then.. there's been a whole lotta HPI

I couldn't afford to send my kids private either ;-) Going to try for a scholarship if we can though

michaels

Even if money was no object I still wouldn't send my kids private.

PasturesNew

4 beds start at £350k where I live .... and I'm nowhere near London.

A budget of £500k gets you a choice of 27 of them.

I live where Londoners sell up and retire to ... with their huge pot of money.

Having looked at them on RM ... I'd be thoroughly disappointed if I had that much money and wanted to spend it on a house .... they mostly don't look worth the money at all. For £300-500k you'd expect something a bit nice, a bit special. Nope, just run of the mill houses of no architectural or other merit at all.

Maybe I should extend mine to 4 beds and flog it.

gadgetmind

michaels wrote: »

Even if money was no object I still wouldn't send my kids private.

As we've both been open that we did well enough in state schools to get into good universities, I'm guessing that the costs of privately educating a few kids aren't too onerous to either of us.

However, in my case it's definitely "despite" rather than "because of", so I'd be interested to know your reasoning.

fred246

A child that attends a normal UK school spends about 15% of their time at school. What is happening to that child for the other 85%?
My wife stopped work when we had children so the children were well looked after and educated when they were either in or out of school. We have always enjoyed loads of holidays which we had for fun but I think the children also learned a lot during them. We could have afforded to educate them privately but having studied the schools available we couldn't see any advantage. Private schools like Eton and Harrow are very good because they look after the children 100% of the time. Your local private school is not Eton or Harrow. A lot of state schools have a streaming system. The top stream often achieves excellent results but in the league tables the results are reduced by the lower streams. The private school would not have admitted the children from the lower streams in the first place so the private school has higher results.

chucknorris

PasturesNew wrote: »

4 beds start at £350k where I live .... and I'm nowhere near London.

A budget of £500k gets you a choice of 27 of them.

I live where Londoners sell up and retire to ... with their huge pot of money.

Having looked at them on RM ... I'd be thoroughly disappointed if I had that much money and wanted to spend it on a house .... they mostly don't look worth the money at all. For £300-500k you'd expect something a bit nice, a bit special. Nope, just run of the mill houses of no architectural or other merit at all.

Maybe I should extend mine to 4 beds and flog it.

Whenever I have looked at houses in other areas (we might eventually downsize in area, but not value/quality/size) I have found that the more you spend the better the value looks to me. As you say the £300k to £500k range might not offer anything special, but what about the £600 to £800k range? £800k doesn't buy anything much (certainly not special) in London and the better parts of the SE anyway, so to those migrating from those areas, the value will look even better. What is the (approx, first 3-4 digits) of the postcode in your area?

kinger101

fred246 wrote: »

The private school would not have admitted the children from the lower streams in the first place so the private school has higher results.

Is that true? I thought the Eton entrance exam's first and only question might be "How much money does daddy have?".

onlyroz

ringo_24601 wrote: »

That's not exactly real, is it, as people rarely buy a 'family home' as their first home. The housing ladder is at play in areas with expensive 'modest' houses. My house would set you back £425k right now (it's a reasonably ordinary 3 bed semi).. I bought my first house when my wife and I were both earning about national average salary.

The fact remains that once you hit your thirties and want to settle down and have kids, you're going to want a 3-bed house. Round my way in Berkshire they start at £300k and you need up to £400k to get a nice one. To afford one of these if you have limited capacity to put together a deposit you need a combined income that is significantly above the national average.

We have been very lucky because hubby was able to buy a flat in London for £45k in 1995, which we sold in 2007 for £202k. Without that we would have struggled to buy our modest family home (which we got for £250k in 2007, and is now worth around £400k after having done a loft conversion).

chris_m

kinger101 wrote: »

I thought the Eton entrance exam's first and only question might be "How much money does daddy have?".

That certainly seemed to be the case when the grammar school I attended went private.
Those of us already there were still paid for by the LEA, but it was somewhat alarming how high a proportion of the subsequent new intakes spoke with posh accents but were as thick as pigs**t.

CLAPTON

chris_m wrote: »

That certainly seemed to be the case when the grammar school I attended went private.
Those of us already there were still paid for by the LEA, but it was somewhat alarming how high a proportion of the subsequent new intakes spoke with posh accents but were as thick as pigs**t.

why was that alarming?
do you not think that people less intelligent that you can be worthwhile decent people?
or is it you don't just want to mix with them?