Are you totting up the cost of school fees? Are you turning your piggy bank upside down, white-faced? Yes, the cost of private education is the ultimate first-world problem. But even among the ‘haves’, some are luckier than others.
The global super-rich pay school fees from lavish earnings or trust funds. The rest of us, having failed to take the elementary precaution of being (or marrying) a hedge-fund manager, must save up. The financial pressures on middle-class families can be gruelling.
‘Overseas trips are crippling. Why can’t they tour to Ipswich?’ fumes a father
As a rough starting figure, a recent newspaper investment advice column told a young couple to budget for private school fees at around £30,000 a year. ‘For seven years of schooling for two children, you would need around £256,000, assuming annual inflation of 2 per cent,’ it continued.
You can find a boarding prep or day school for £10,000 a term; but Summer Fields is £37,500 annually.
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