Education and Lifetime Earnings

[VickysK]

I am not trying to start a fight but it's something that's been on my mind.

Does studying and "working hard" actually benefit you?

I was raised with parents who valued education but also getting good grades. As in "you need to do well in school or you'll end up at McDonald's".

Yes I did well. Went to a top university, did a master's and I'm doing well..

But... Like what really happens to the kids who "muck about in school and don't study".

In 1992 my DP was asked to leave his private school just before his GCSEs. He'd done no coursework, skipped school all the time, was forever being caught smoking. "You'll never amount to anything!" type of kid.
He sat his GCSEs somewhere else and pretty much failed all of them apart from French, English and Latin.
He tried to do A levels at a 6th form college and dropped out after a term.
He went to work for our local council at 17 printing out large plans, moved up to a PC technician, but was teaching himself coding at home.
He is now 49 has his own software company and can earn anywhere from £550 to £1000 a day depending on who he is contracting for.
I did all the swotty girly things and can only dream of earning what he does.

@RelativePitch congrats to your DH

I think valuing academic success is old wisdom. Intelligence comes in many forms and school isn’t the right place for everyone to fly. I was academically bright. There are many from my school whose skills were less valued than mine. They live in bigger houses than me now and will have better pensions. I did fine. I work for the NHS. Others did better.

I was really bright. Had to drop my A Levels when I became homeless at 17. Many many years just surviving. Now do the same work and earn as much as the 2 others in my team, who came from middle class backgrounds and both have degrees. (I never had the opportunity to go back to education. Worked my way up.
Life is luck mainly.

The highest earner I know barely scraped any GCSEs. He's now on well over £100k a year.

I also know plumbers and electricians who didn't get anywhere near the qualifications I did at school but earn far more than I do.