I have a friend who sends his boys to my old alma mater (Catholic middle & high school), where tuition is going up to $6K/yr now, up from $2.5K/yr for the local parochial elementary school. Taking this further, let's say the children go to a regular private liberal arts college that runs about $15K/yr (even after grants) more per year rather than State U, and we'll presume 5 years of college, since most kids seem to take 5 rather than 4 years to graduate as they would rather take the minimum load instead of the recommended load to get out in 4 years. This would be an after-tax cost of $128K per child. So let's presume that standard 3 kids, for a total of $384K in extra costs.
Let's presume a standard professional 2 income family, earning $70K per year in the net 15% federal, 6% state, 7.65% FICA tax bracket. The $384K after tax cash would need to be earned in about $538K in pre-tax earnings. Assuming a strong FIRE savings plan of 17% 401K + 6% match + $5K IRA each, the lost savings opportunity would be about $26K/yr, which would take about 20 years to recoup. Hence, for a hypothetical set equally socioeconomically situated couples, in which one couple decided to give their children a fine private education while the other just sent them to the local state public schools, the private school paying couple would basically be throwing away 20 years in the goal of FIRE - one couple slaves away until 65, while the other takes it easy at 45.
Would it be worth it?
Let's presume a standard professional 2 income family, earning $70K per year in the net 15% federal, 6% state, 7.65% FICA tax bracket. The $384K after tax cash would need to be earned in about $538K in pre-tax earnings. Assuming a strong FIRE savings plan of 17% 401K + 6% match + $5K IRA each, the lost savings opportunity would be about $26K/yr, which would take about 20 years to recoup. Hence, for a hypothetical set equally socioeconomically situated couples, in which one couple decided to give their children a fine private education while the other just sent them to the local state public schools, the private school paying couple would basically be throwing away 20 years in the goal of FIRE - one couple slaves away until 65, while the other takes it easy at 45.
Would it be worth it?