I went to a private Christian school from k-12th and then went to private collage. My parents sacrificed so much and I’m forever grateful. Def gonna look into the article.

Hi Marissa! A small piece of advice from a teacher... be sure to ask potential private schools about the qualifications of their staff. Some private school teachers aren't even certified or did not study education! Of course, many are highly qualified with lots of experience. Peter is very lucky to have you two as such caring parents!

I would encourage you to think about doing private k-8 and let Peter decide if he wants to continue with private school for high school. That’s what my parents did for me, and going to private middle school was 10000% the right decision for me and going to public high school made the most sense for me

Former teacher here (taught in public and private school). Stay away from government schools. Even if you think your kid is in a “good” district. My plan was put our kids in private school and then God put homeschooling on my heart, so we have done that from the beginning. We love the freedom and flexibility!

Both of my kids are in private school and we love it. I do know that if your kid needs services public schools can be a better deal as a lot of services are included (speech,tutoring, mental health etc.).

I’m a former public high school teacher. I left teaching in 2014 to stay home with my youngest son. My oldest was in public school until this school year and my youngest did kindergarten in public school, including the last few months of virtual learning due to the pandemic. You’re so right when you say plans change. This school year, we withdrew our children and homeschooled. We have no intention to return to public school. Private school isn’t financially feasible as we are late in our decision making, but homeschooling has been a blessing for us. We live in a homeschool friendly area and my oldest played basketball for our local homeschool middle school team and now, is playing tennis. Having said all of that, I think you’re wise to plan this way. Having had this year at home with my boys, we have been able to incorporate our faith in their learning and I’ve seen so much growth. Specifically, public middle school brought a set of challenges that neither my son nor I were prepared for. I’m not sure what the future will bring, but I am taking this journey one year at a time. Continue to pray and let God lead you in your decision making.

We are starting our first year in private school now. If you ever have to pay for childcare (we do) I just transition the funds directly to fund private school tuition. In my mind, it takes the sting out. It's a big financial decision! As always, great post!

I went to a private Christian school for 8-12 grades and am so thankful my parents made that decision! Good for you guys!

my 5 and 6 yo go to a private christian school. i love it. i love that they are learning the gospel and how knowing and loving Jesus impacts their lives every day. we live in florida and we are able to take advantage of a tax credit scholarship we get based on our family size and income to help us pay for tuition. we cash flow the difference in our budget every month. thanks for sharing!

Good for you!! We’ve been homeschooling our children for the last three years and we are sending our kiddos to private school in middle school!

we did private for the firs two years....then we went public. Like you said, way more opportunities and extras. the cost was not worth it to us.

You’re able to save a lot, that’s great! My husband and I both went to public school and attended college at state college. We have two kids in Christian school now and our youngest starts in the fall. Totally worth it. It’s a great fit for our family. You mentioned small class sizes. We live a very rural area. The public school graduates about 25. Our kids school is a total of 25 grades pre-K-12. I do daycare at home for two families and that more than covers tuition. We don’t currently make enough to pay taxes but if I go back to work full time I’d consider the 529 as I had never heard you can use that for k12 private. I have friends and family who homeschool, public school and Christian school. School choice is an incredible gift and I support parents in doing what’s best for THEIR kids. Your channel is a wealth of information, thank you ❤️

I love the intent. As time goes on you will continue to understand Peters needs more and more, don't be afraid to make shifts in "the plan" for what works for his and your families needs. Having a plan to pay for the most expensive option is always awesome but hard to predict 5 years from now what will be the best fit.

My current plan is to homeschool K-8 then Christian school for high school. We're hoping to have four kids and really value a Christian education, so this way it's more financially feasible. Plus I was homeschooled and have always wanted to homeschool my kids. I'm excited to glean wisdom from the homeschooling mommas at my church.

Kids can ride the school bus, if they are in public schools. In private schools, the parents have to pick/drop the kids. It’s not feasible for many parents who work full time.

I have three kids in high school and they have been enrolled in private Christian schools since preschool. I personally attended mostly public schools, but did spend two years in private school. From our experience, there is no comparison between the education and overall experience in a good private, Christian school vs. a large public school. I would never go back to public. Our kids have gotten to play MORE sports than they would have at a public school. Basically, if they wanted to try a sport, they could (soccer, baseball, basketball, football). In the large public schools in our area (we only have large schools around us), only the best few athletes (out of hundreds or even well over a thousand boys) in each sport ever get to play. The competitive pressures force most public school kids to specialize in one sport early and play that year-round to the exclusion of every other sport. These same pressures even extend to extracurriculars like band, cheer etc. Further, the academics at the private school my kids attend are equal to even the best public schools in our metro area and far superior to most of them. Also, no public school is allowed to incorporate a Christian worldview into their curriculum, but most of them gleefully engage in woke, secular indoctrination. Its worth the expense to have our values reinforced by their school, rather than actively contradicted.

I think it's definitely smart to begin planning this early if this is something you want for Peter, and it won't be so much of a financial burden later on if you're ready for it now. I agree that smaller class sizes are going to be an incredible opportunity for private school. I went to private school and really didn't enjoy it, but I know everyone's very different!

Ted Cruz's amendment to the tax cuts of 2017 that allowed 529s to apply to K-12 was one of the best parts of the law.

My parents put me in private school when I was younger. It was the worst decision they made for me. Thankfully I was taken out during 5th grade. My school was so far behind the public school. It was crazy. People were so mean at my private school. Obviously there are mean people everywhere but it was terrible. I wish my parents never put me in that school

Hi Marissa, good morning! Thank you for sharing this personal decision with us. Whatever you decide is best for your family, you know what is best. Hope your family has wonderful week!😊💕

Okay I definitely agree with why you all want to send Peter to a Christian private school. (I grew up in church myself). The way our society is going.. everything is backwards these days. What’s wrong is right and what’s right is wrong. Your son growing up around people with the same values as his, will keep in stead fast in the word 👏🏽👏🏽

Yes! So good you guys are talking about this now, We have a 1st grader and pulling her from public school where all her friends are is going to be hard! We are looking into the charter route. We have 3 kids so private is just way to much. But for pre school age we plan to do private, like we did with our 6yo. Being a parent is tough! So many decisions!

Good on you guys. I'm curious to see if you guys will end up changing your decision if you have more children - the costs for me personally get REALLY scary if planning to pay for two or more children :/

My parents sent me to private pre 3 - 12th grade. The school wasn’t better than our public school but I had some trouble learning as a kid and they were able to work with me individually more than I believe happens at public school. I will say that I knew lots of people (children of devout Catholics) graduate after 15 years of private school very skeptical about religion and even atheist in many cases. I’m not saying don’t do it, but a good youth group at church might do more to keep his interest in religion than Catholic school.

My kids did private church based pre school. But we switched to public school at kindergarten because our public schools are nationally ranked. Now I am grateful they have gone to public school and has had wonderful experiences with the public schools. The only thing I miss about faith based education was that the parents had more in common and had a similar value system than th parents in public school at all income levels. It they are at different ages, so I don’t know how those preschool parent s,any have changed over time.

We also have similar conversations about where our kids could/should go. Love your idea of using the 529 for this. Though it largely gives up the best part of a 529 (tax-free growth), the ongoing state tax deduction is a nice win along the way. I have a few coaching clients who use a similar strategy. Also, your plan to get ahead of it while your son is younger is awesome! That will really relieve some pressure down the road.

Need timestamps.

We plan on sending our future kids to private school, probably montessori in the first few years, or possibly even homeschool for a bit. We would just cashflow it though as it would be more of an ongoing expense and there are contribution limits in Canada for registered education saving plans.

So to start, I don’t have children yet but we plan to start trying next year. I wouldn’t pick private school for many reasons, first I don’t value the small school vibe. My parents went to very small public schools with graduating classes around 20 and they didn’t like the overall experience because there was a lot of drama and catty behavior, cliques and gossip that everyone in the school knew about. I went to a large public school (580 in my senior class) and sure there was drama with friend groups but there were so many students that drama didn’t circulate through the whole school. You could easily make and have multiple friend groups that didn’t really interact. Plus we had all kinds of great activities like gymnastics, golf, academic decathalon etc. I loved all the activities and making homecoming floats so that’s what I’d want for my kids. Another big reason I won’t be sending my kids to private school is, I don’t think it adequately prepares them for adult life from a social perspective, at least not our local private schools. I’ve seen it affect others ability to “fit in” so to speak in the real world. All of the colleagues I’ve had who went to private school k-12 have had a privileged mindset that wasn’t empathetic to others situations. It might just be my area but there was no economic diversity in private school so the kids only interacted w middle to high earning families and now as adults they don’t seem to understand that some people can’t ask their family for money for a down payment or didn’t graduate debt free because their parents couldn’t finance college for them. These colleagues aren’t intentionally cruel, but they’ve made multiple statements that sound demeaning to the less fortunate and I think it’s because they have never interacted with someone from a different economic class. Public schools in my area are much more economically and culturally diverse and since we live on CA which is also very diverse, I think public school better prepares young people to be in the real world where they will often encounter people from different cultures, religions, economic statuses etc. I understand that this isn’t the case everywhere and private schools can be diverse, but in my area they’re not. Diversity is also why I don’t want my kids to attend a religious school. I want them to be exposed to other faiths and be comfortable making friends with people who think differently.

I love the concept of private school(small classes) and having more opportunities/programs. The thing is we’re not a religious family so I’m a little stuck on what kind of school we want to send our kids to

We have been going back and forth on this for a while. I grew up in private education and my husband in public. Both were good. Our kids attend a private kindergarten and our plan was always to go public after that. We have been second guessing, but decided to start saving now but send our kids to public. Then if issues arise we can always then switch to private.

We live in a Portland suburb too and will soooo be putting our child in private school. Honestly I feel like that could change if we end up moving out of state BUT the school and district would have to be really amazing otherwise we will be sticking to private schools!

I went to private catholic school K-12 and while I’m not religious I did enjoy my experience. However, I would suggest public schools for the younger grades. There isn’t that much added value to private schools at that point and it could save you a ton of money. Maybe you are better off doing K through 3rd grade or so at public and than switch over to private. That would also allow you to have more money available to invest in a second or third child in the meantime. Just a suggestion. Do what feels best.

Great video!! My son has been in private education since kindergarten, and its been the best decision I could have made. He is now in 3rd grade, and loves school! I've been doing a pro / cons list of using the 529 to pay for tuition, but I need to do more research. I would love to hear more on this topic!

We decided to send our three boys to a Christian private school with focus in academic due to it's overwhelming academic advantage compare to their public school option and other qualities. Our plan in to put them in to the public middle school when they are done with their elementary so our kids get to go to classes and school with kids with different cultures, beliefs, and different family dynamics.

Our baby is 8 months and we just decided to do either private or homeschool. I HATED public school. Hated it.

It was nice to hear the process and the plans that you all have in mind. Thank you for sharing this information

I went to public school every single year and I got bullied every single year that’s y if I had kids all my kids would either be home schooled or go to private or boarding schools every single year they would not ever go to public schools ever

Just found your channel and this is very helpful. I’m a former public school teacher who also taught in a private school and we have decided we will either homeschool and opt for private school. It’s not easy financially on one income, so we’ve sacrificed hugely by living in a small house. I am curious how you’re balancing paying off your mortgage early with also private school goals. We feel like we have so many competing financial goals between SAHM, private school, helping with college and then also wanting to be in a good spot with our retirement and mortgage.

Our faith is unwavering… I just want him to have top notch education

Love it! Gr8 vid

the two biggest issues with private schools are 1, they're expensive. I've met some people who went to a private school until the last day of 8th grade. 2 no special education

This is great choice and reasons for the private route. My child started in K and I found it worth while. The math and reading curriculums used allowed my child to excel. It all depends on the school as there a great public schools in some areas. It just lottery based in my area and hard to get into the top academic public options. Have you both thought about the F.I.R.E style of retirement? New subscriber

I do love the idea of private school for 3rd-8th grade, and this is actually really great to hear that there's a possibility that I'd be able to use a 529 for K-12! I've been on the fence about using a 529, because what if one...or all...of my kids decide to go the trade route, military, start a business, or go right into a workforce that offers in-house training...with ample room to grow and be promoted...out of high school instead?

I’m so glad that you talked about this. Dave Ramsey doesn’t encourage private school so he often doesn’t get asked a lot about it, and it’s hard to find resources pertaining to it. We have Thrivent Coverdell accounts for our three children and those can be used for private school tuition and/or college. I will have to check my state’s laws on taxes! Thanks for posting about private schooling!

Thought.... if you kept it in one 529 wouldn't there be more growth? Then to parse out how much is college and how much is primary/secondary you could look at it as fractions. 2/7 of the balance is college, 5/7 is private school. Might be more trouble then it's worth, but would be cool to have tons of growth to use!

Dave Ramsey Rules :)) great job thanks for the video :))

I'm an Oregonian too lol majoring in accounting at college. Also what public school did you go to

I was thinking about private school but I learned that in FL public school teachers need a degree but private school teachers doesn’t need it

What if you have another baby will your budgeting change?

What will you do when he had to go to high school but he doesn’t wanna go on a private high school he want to go public high school high school?

How did you come up with the $200 amount. My cousin is saving that for his daughter but we originally started with$150/ month. But now we decided to bump that up to $400/ month

Puede hacer este video en español

Half your video is just disclaimers -_-

Step up for students is the worst idea ever. Terrible organization. Nightmare.