We Don't Need No Education....Fees

Putting your kids through private education can be very expensive....

Many parents say they could have been rich if they hadn't had children. From the minute they're born, till they leave home, they are going to cost you money. So, it's good to be prepared for what lies ahead.One of the many claims on your budget could be their education. Some of you may opt to send Junior to state school. But others will prefer to enrol their offspring at a private school. And this is where things start to get very expensive. In fact, paying for private education is becoming more and more difficult for many mums and dads, as recent research from Halifax Financial Services points out. The reason is that school fees have increased by a massive 41% in the past five years -- more than twice the rate of inflation. This means that some parents who could have afforded it in the past are now having to think again. So, if you have been hoping to send young Johnny to Eton, or perhaps one of the many other private schools in the UK, what kind of outlay should you be expecting?Well, five years ago, the average cost of sending a child to private school as a day pupil was around £7000 a year. Not exactly cheap, but not beyond the budget of many professionals either. Brace yourself for the current cost though: this year you won't get much change out of £10,000. This means that average private school fees now account for around a third of average gross earnings (£30,504). That could represent quite a sizeable chunk of your household income. And the cost gets even higher if you were thinking about boarding school: the average cost for a boarder is now an eye-watering £20,970. That's 36% higher than it was five years ago. We don't need no more inflationI would not be surprised if these figures caused some of you to have a re-think and another look at that comprehensive down the road.But if your heart is set on a private education, don't give up just yet. The good news is that a number of private schools have been increasing the number of bursaries available, to ease the burden on household budgets. What are your child's chances? At the moment nearly a third of pupils at independent schools are getting support towards the cost of their education. So, it could be well worth checking out the possibility of a bursary at the school of your choice.And what if a bursary isn't on offer? You still don't have to abandon the idea of private education altogether. School fees planning can be a sensible way to save up in advance, avoiding last minute panic about where the money's going to come from. Some of the possibilities available include ISAs, unit trusts, investment trusts or a loan. When that's out of the way, time to start thinking about how to pay for the cost of their university education. Then the wedding, the grandchildren ...