Saving for private highschool..

[Olive]

we've started saving for our DD's highschool education, putting $30 each into their accounts each month plus all my income (which isnt much as im only working a few hours a week atm)
We want to send them to private schools if we can and if thats the way they're heading.
just wondering if anyone is doing the same? i know what we're saving really isnt much atm but i guess every little bit will help

[toomanyshoes]

We've started putting $1000 aside every month. Plus we add DH's bonus every year to that and anything we get back on tax and thats without me working. When I'm working again I'm not sure what we plan to do with my income.

Our plan is private high school as well. But in stead of just having money sitting there next year we're going to invest some, put some in a term deposit and leave the rest in our high interest account. Not sure how it's going to go but will know by the end of next year.

Maybe thirds, haven't really nutted out the details yet because we were only talking about it the other night.

It also isn't going to be exclusively for school, we're putting off buying another house for a few more years because we want a bigger deposit so that will come partly from that as well.

I think that main thing is you make a start and keep going with it, doesn't take long for it all to start adding up.

[Pandora]

I have an ASG account for DS1, but I need to organize one for DS2 when I can organize it

[ladybird11]

I've been putting $400 each mth into a high interest account for a few yrs now - thank gosh they offer discounts for subsequent kids attending at the same time lol!

[Olive]

thanks for that toomany!
pandora does ASG have high interest?
the girls accounts are high interest..cant withdrawal without loosing interest accounts
we also have a portfolio with axa that we cant access STILL from GFC so that will get added to it as well, we also have money invested else where but will leave where it is for now

ETA makes my small contribution seem piddly lol!!

[Pandora]

It's kind of like super. You pit in a certain amount per month and it's invested by the scholarship fund. It's not like an account you can access easily online etc.

That said if you needed to cancel it for some reason you would be able to.

His is 70/nth at the moment, and we are struggling to manage it but I'm looking at the long term benefit and doing whatever it takes. His school is P-12 and at the moment Yr 12 is 5-6k per year. I dont want to imagine how much that is indexed by the time he's there.

Once the CCR is paid fortnightly we will be able to afford to open one for DS2

[Roryrory]

from what I understand the main advantage with ASG is that the $$ is paid tax free into your hands - it is definitely worth checking out if planning on private schools

[Olive]

cool i might check it out!

ETA our cheapest private is currently $10k a year for yr 12

[Mak]

We've taken a different approach and been putting additional fund into the mortgage with the idea that we can redraw the extra when needed. Not sure if I have missed an additional benefit of these accounts tho??

[Roryrory]

Mak we've decided to put more into the mortgage too. In place of school fees LOL! (with the view that the local state school can provide a good education and kids would probably do better with a house (or equivalent amount of cash) when they hit early adulthood

[beansbeans!]

We have an ASG account for both our girls. I cant reccommend them enough.. Yes its a chunk every month (for both girls its $107/mnth), but its high interest, its a safe investment, but I also like the way they encourage kids to succeed.

[Mak]

It is interesting hearing different ways of managing things - agree Rory, we're reasonably lucky with a great selection of schools around who knows what the kids will be keen on/interested in doing so we figure we're hedging our bets a bit without committing to a particular path at this point!

[Olive]

we do have a great high school a few suburbs away but seeing as where not in that zone, it wil be hard to get the girls in

[Nai]

We are hedging our bets We have an ASG account and we are also looking at the local High Schools. Our zoned one has been slowly but steadily improving and hopefully will be really good by the time the girls go. However we have not ruled out renting out our house and moving a few suburbs away to a different zone to get the school we want.

[Amity]

I'm paying down the mortgage. I'm expecting a bill of $25,000 per child per year. And I'm not expecting XH to cough up anything anytime soon as I haven't had any child support since January.

And yes, that's $50,000 per year. Scary.

[Olive]

very scary div

[OceanPrincess]

Div what do you mean "paying down the mortgage"? Just curious.

Also eta can I ask which private schools have costs that high? I have no idea about these things..

[AnyDream]

We've taken a different approach and been putting additional fund into the mortgage with the idea that we can redraw the extra when needed. Not sure if I have missed an additional benefit of these accounts tho??

Mak that was the strategy suggested by out financial planner too. Because of the way home loan interest compounds, the amount of interest you save by doing this reduces your loan much faster and you end up with more $$ to play with sooner.