Figures released by the Australian Scholarships Group suggest that the cost of educating your child could be up to $500,000 if you send them to the top private schools.
Given that annual fees start around $10,000 per year from early primary school that total figure probably comes as no surprise.
If however you are hoping to send your children to private schools let this be another nudge to ensure that you have detailed plans in place for how you are going to be able to afford that dream.
At the same time consider what safety nets you have in place. Do you really want to have to move your children to a new school away from their friends if you strike a tough financial patch?
Note that whilst I appreciate ASG publishing these figures I am not a fan of education bond products like those of ASG. I believe there are better ways to save up for and fund your children’s education. I believe funding school fees should be looked as one lifestyle goal (albeit a big one) as part of a total financial well-being plan. That can give you greater flexibility as well as better bang for your savings buck.
School fee summaries and estimates by state
ASG have kindly provided very detailed summaries, which makes their information worth a look.
You can browse national figures and by state. Figures are also split between metropolitan and regional and between education ‘systems’ (Government, Systemic such as Catholic, Private).
And they also include estimates for children starting pre-primary this year (2011) and those children born this year.
View the ASG school fee estimates here.