Expense Planning

[TokyoBoglehead]

Alpha Draft: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

We are in the beginning stages of planning or kids education path, and our eventual purchase of a home. So I needed to rough out some numbers.

Please give me some input and advice. This is very beginning stages stuff....

......

I don't know yet where we plan to live specifically (Ota, Kanagawa or Yokohama possibly).

(Rough plan)
Kid 1 - Private from JH
Kid 2 - Private from Kinder
Mortgage Est - 6Omillion

[TokyoWart]

Our experience differed from that spreadsheet in a few ways:

For public elementary school in Tokyo we had minimal out-of-pocket expenses. Probably less than 100,000/year per kid (our 3 boys all attended the local public elementary) but we did not do any juku.

For private junior high / middle school we were stuck with the very expensive ASIJ as a private school which was probably 3,500,000 yen/year. We found that more expensive than it was worth and actually wound up sending the kids to the US for school after elementary school.

The uni prices on that sheet might be a bit low. I've taught at national (国立大学) medical schools in Tokyo and there tuition was as low as on your sheet but don't forget living expenses, etc. I think private universities are a but more expensive (at least one of our neighbors had to sell their house for their child to attend private medical school here in Japan). Our university experience has been in the famously expensive US and we've found tuition & room/board can be done for around $30,000/year there if you're careful and over a third of that has been room & board.

[captainspoke]

Skipping over elementary thru HS, total cost for our two kids was a good ¥30M for their university, one a little more than half of that, the other somewhat less. Maybe 14M for one, 16 for the other, or 13.5 and 16.5--something like that.

Both went to national/国立, which are cheaper tuition-wise, but then living expenses and travel since both went away to other cities--one to kansai, the other to kanto. Also, both ended up on a five-year plan (included in those numbers). The first opted for a year of extra study and then matriculated (and then finished in four); the other started as expected but then did a year abroad, and due to the specifics of their program not all of the credits counted, so an extra year to finish up some courses required to graduate.

Good luck!

[TokyoBoglehead]

Our experience differed from that spreadsheet in a few ways:

For public elementary school in Tokyo we had minimal out-of-pocket expenses. Probably less than 100,000/year per kid (our 3 boys all attended the local public elementary) but we did not do any juku.

For private junior high / middle school we were stuck with the very expensive ASIJ as a private school which was probably 3,500,000 yen/year. We found that more expensive than it was worth and actually wound up sending the kids to the US for school after elementary school.

The uni prices on that sheet might be a bit low. I've taught at national (国立大学) medical schools in Tokyo and there tuition was as low as on your sheet but don't forget living expenses, etc. I think private universities are a but more expensive (at least one of our neighbors had to sell their house for their child to attend private medical school here in Japan). Our university experience has been in the famously expensive US and we've found tuition & room/board can be done for around $30,000/year there if you're careful and over a third of that has been room & board.

Thank you for the input!

Elementary School - They will go to English Juku (For fun), and Kumon (For math)

High School - We are only looking at Japanese schools, not international. International schools seem like the worst of both world's from my what I have seen.

Uni - Medical and dental schools are always the most expensive unless they are public it seems.

American Unis - They'll have to sort out the financing themselves if they want to go this way. I don't agree with the cost / benefit here. However they have Canadian citizenship.

[TokyoBoglehead]

Skipping over elementary thru HS, total cost for our two kids was a good ¥30M for their university, one a little more than half of that, the other somewhat less. Maybe 14M for one, 16 for the other, or 13.5 and 16.5--something like that.

Both went to national/国立, which are cheaper tuition-wise, but then living expenses and travel since both went away to other cities--one to kansai, the other to kanto. Also, both ended up on a five-year plan (included in those numbers). The first opted for a year of extra study and then matriculated (and then finished in four); the other started as expected but then did a year abroad, and due to the specifics of their program not all of the credits counted, so an extra year to finish up some courses required to graduate.

Good luck!

Thank you for the details !

What percentage of those costs were tuition vs room/board?

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

Has anyone thought about buying a 1 K apartment for their kids when they go university? If my kids were to stay within Fukuoka prefecture, I think it might be possible to get one second hand apartment for less than 5 million even in sought after Fukuoka city. After four years, saving on paying your kid's rent (ultimately you pay that as the parent) you have an asset that gives a 10% return in rent. Has anyone else tried this?

[captainspoke]

...
What percentage of those costs were tuition vs room/board?

National uni tuition runs about ¥530,000/year, an excellent deal, tho not free as some places in euroland. 県立大 are also cheap, and some of those are pretty decent. I forget exactly, but probably about ¥200,000 additional the first year as an upfront matriculation fee--and I think almost all schools here have this kind of initial fee.

For living costs, remember that for contracting most any apartment here, there are those upfront fees, which could be budgeted as a one-off, or amortized into the cost over a year or more. I think most electronics stores (eg, yamada denki) will sell you (and deliver on move-in) the basic five things--small refrigerator, tv, microwave, rice cooker, and something else I can't think of.

[TokyoWart]

Elementary School - They will go to English Juku (For fun), and Kumon (For math)

Your kids are probably more studious than our boys were but there was no way they were going to agree to go to juku even though many of their friends attended. Might just be a delayed-maturity-in-boys thing because they're doing fine now (one works in wealth management at Bank of America, another will be a Quant at Goldman Sachs this summer) but we always felt a bit behind in studiousness compared to our Japanese neighbors.

High School - We are only looking at Japanese schools, not international. International schools seem like the worst of both world's from my what I have seen.

Yes, this is also my assessment.

[captainspoke]

Neither of ours (two) went to juku, elementary thru high school (tho the one spent a year as 浪人 at Sundai).


Some of the junior and high school cost will be affected by the 'club' they choose.

[Wilbur]

Here's a calculator that you can use to help estimate with the tuition and living expenses for Canadian Universities.

https://www.getsmarteraboutmoney.ca/cal ... alculator/