We earn £190k a year. Do we need to sell our flat to afford private school fees?

I don’t have a problem with them making money, I have a problem with their expectation/naivety that they’re entitled to send their kids to an expensive school without making any sacrifices to their lifestyle. The fact that they have choice available to them, but don’t seem to be willing to make any changes is a damning consequence of the current social expectation that one can have their cake and eat it. This isn’t limited to people like this family, but also a lot of people who stretch themselves considerably beyond their means in order to meet some social expectation of how they should live. Just take a look at the cars parked down your street – how many are on PCP etc just because their mates expect them to have a BMW 335d. how many people will be feeling forced to run up huge credit card debt this Christmas so their kids can have the latest and greatest games console because that’s what all their classmates are getting?

To me it’s an attitude that was born in the 80s and is a direct result of the right to buy and other initiatives that developed such a materialistic society. I’m not saying I’m not guilty of it either – I recently spent nearly £600 on a steel hardtail frame built in Taiwan on the basis that it was designed by some rad Canadians, entirely materialistic. The only thing is I could afford to do this without detriment to the other things I consider necessities in life or putting myself in debt (other than emotional debt to my wife, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish).

To me it’s an attitude that was born in the 80s

You could just blame Thatcher, it would take a lot less words.

You could just blame Thatcher, it would take a lot less words.

😀

So is the summary of the last 6 pages that stw concludes 190k isn’t much and they are right to be concerned?

Or possibly that when it comes to self-awareness, this is right up there with that letter from Dave last week, to the head of Oxford council, asking why he was cutting library services

footflaps – Member
You could just blame Thatcher, it would take a lot less words.

I could, but it’s not as clear as that so I didn’t. Sorry you have a problem with that. The development of our current society’s acceptance of personal debt is a lot more nuanced than even I care to understand.

So is the summary of the last 6 pages that stw concludes 190k isn’t much and they are right to be concerned?

No, I think the summary is that if you make no financial plans, apart from those that mirror your much richer friends Jontie and Buntie who were at the same minor prep or public schools (and who’s parents are “independently wealthy”), then your massive sense of entitlement isn’t able to be satisfied by what is a substantial income, except in one of the world’s most expensive cities to live in.

So is the summary of the last 6 pages that stw concludes 190k isn’t much and they are right to be concerned?

In their world, the “problem” is it isn’t much money when you factor in the insane living costs for the job/life style they and their peers want to maintain.

I think if you want to send kids to expensive private schools, realistically, they need to be partners at their firms, rather than the levels they’re at now – that would be my advice to them in terms of how to afford it – get to partner in a few years and pay it out of higher earnings – but question how little they will see of their kids….

then your massive sense of entitlement isn’t able to be satisfied by what is a substantial income, except in one of the world’s most expensive cities to live in.

£190k is a substantial income in London, by any objective measure.

Its folk like this is whats wrong with the country……a sense of entitlement.

I was ALWAYS brought up not to be in debt, if i cant afford it then save up for it, by the time you’ll have decided whether you actually do really need it or not. If you cant afford it, forget about it until you can.

If you cant afford private school, then you can’t. If you can work out a way then fine.

I can’t stand people like this, i bet they have a circle of ‘friends’ that they deep down despise and are in silent competition with. Probably drive a Discovery to do the school run in – it’s never seen mud. Eff off with your pretentious kids names it makes everyone cringe when you shout it across the park when they run off in their Ralph Lauren wellies!

Or……just move out of London, work normal hours, live in a normal house and enjoy playing with your kids in the summer evenings. Relax and get in to a bit of yoga.

‘We earn £190K a year. Should we sell a child so we can buy another flat?’

I had to look at this thread as I thought Daily Mash was getting its ideas from STW! 😯

Would be handy I guess, saves me visiting both sites, sure they’d have some interesting opinions on sportive vs. Audax and the various wheel size debates 😀

So is the summary of the last 6 pages that stw concludes that they’ll be first against the wall when the revolution comes

FIFY.

No the summary is closer to “forget the context, lets get frothy”

FFS – look what section its in. Then think hmmm, is this an actual story or an embellished one that enables us to write an article. Then, perhaps, appreciate that this whole story is actually about creating a scenario in which to discuss different personal finance issues in an apparent “human/real context”.

simple issues like WTF are you max-ing out on credit cards?
how do you start thinking about financing different things?
look what happens if you don’t think about it?

Why get frothy about that and attack the couple or what they are perceived to represent. That section of the Torygraph has a specific target market segment – its not a universal one!

Whats the context? Couple of financial imbeciles cannot budget?

Or……just move out of London, work normal hours, live in a normal house and enjoy playing with your kids in the summer evenings. Relax and get in to a bit of yoga.

How many zones out would be STW Approved? Six, eight or is that the minimum travel time in hours that they should be doing? Do you think all that travel time will make them and their kids appreciate the short time they do get to spend with each other?

Funny how keeping up with the joneses is such a terrible thing amongst the fat bike riding, Passat driving, shed building, vice owning, log burning STW Elite.

Whats the context? Couple of financial imbeciles cannot budget?

Actually, yes. But from the rest of the speculation and hyperbole being thrown about you would think they were using small children to light the tenners that light their 100% slave labour produced cigars.

yet appear to be moaning about struggling to make ends meet.

But they aren’t moaning. They are just asking for advice on how best to meet their goals.

Funny how keeping up with the joneses is such a terrible thing amongst the fat bike riding, Passat driving, shed building, vice owning, log burning STW Elite.

The main bone of contention seems to be keeping up with the Joneses using money they don’t have.

They are just asking for advice on how best to meet their goals.

Mr Micawber answered that one, some time ago.

I love the stock stw answer for anyone who has a problem and lives in London. Move out of London…. because that will solve everything….

Mr Micawber answered that one, some time ago.

The Tories may be trying to put back the clock to Dickensian times, but the personal finance landscape retains some differences from Mr M’s era.

The main bone of contention seems to be keeping up with the Joneses using money they don’t have.

I didn’t realise having less than 5% of your income tied up in credit cards was such a bad thing, my god…

Unless you mean the school fees. Which they do have the money for, they just need to budget which they’re obviously not good at.

squirrelking – Member
How many zones out would be STW Approved? Six, eight or is that the minimum travel time in hours that they should be doing? Do you think all that travel time will make them and their kids appreciate the short time they do get to spend with each other?

there are jobs* outside London, some of them even pay in actual money, not just beef dripping and pigeons.

(*and museums, theatres, hospitals, airports, schools, etc. Amazing isn’t it)

So to summarise: people with limited common sense can earn vast sums of cash* by living in London doing jobs of little value to society courtesy of the private school education mummy and daddy bestowed upon them. Now they are worried because they have to sacrifice their lifestyle to give the kiddos the same paid for leg up over the proles.

The crazy vacuous bubble surrounding our capital never ceases to amaze me.

*apparently not vast enough

The way I read it, they’re basically benefit scroungers complaining that the state isn’t giving them enough cash. I say public flogging for the parents, and send the children to the work house.

[Quote]The Tories may be trying to put back the clock to Dickensian times, but the personal finance landscape retains some differences from Mr M’s era.[/quote]

I’ll stick with Mr Micawber advice to spend a little less than I earn. So far, it seems to have saved me from moaning to the Telegraph.