How much and for what, do you save for your children?

atush

Flobberchops wrote: »

This is just my personal opinion but I think shelf stacking (or flipping burgers, or collecting glasses in a pub, etc) is a character building education all of its own. Both to acquire a bit of humility and respect for those working in manual or customer service positions, and also to get an appreciation for the value of money. As a 17 year old working on a supermarket till on minimum wage I spent a quiet spell between customers doing a back-of-the-napkin calculation of exactly how long it took me to earn each pound. I think the figure was something like one PENNY earned each seven seconds - to put that in perspective, that meant my compensation for dealing with a particularly rude or awkward customer might be on the order of 20p or so. That kind of realisation made me think twice (for a while, at least) about blowing my pay on luxuries or whims.


Excelling academically is of course very important, but it's jarring how little those GCSE and A-Level certificates count for anything a few years after the fact.

I agree. But my straight A student ended up volunteering as there were no paid jobs to be found (apart from full time). He applied for many along with everyone else in his class. Only a few got them.

He would have been happy to stack shelves.