School fees: start saving early for your child’s education

The cost of sending a child to private school has quadrupled since 1990 - one child's school fees plus university could easily top £250,000. So it pays to start saving early, says Sarah Moore.

The cost of sending a child to private school has quadrupled since 1990, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, making it very much a luxury item for most people, including the sorts of middle-class professionals who might once have considered it a birthright.

The financial outlay now amounts to 38% of a typical doctor's disposable income, up from 17% in 1990, and would constitute as much as 80% of a clergy member's after-tax income. But there are ways to make this huge financial commitment less painful.

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Sarah is MoneyWeek's investment editor. She graduated from the University of Southampton with a BA in English and History, before going on to complete a graduate diploma in law at the College of Law in Guildford. She joined MoneyWeek in 2014 and writes on funds, personal finance, pensions and property.