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This post is dedicated to Diana C.  In Britain a private education increases your chances of making it to the very top in media, business, politics and other careers. Where I come from, Malawi, now deemed by many development league tables to be the poorest country in the world whether you go state or private isn’t even a question: a Government education is now so atrociously lacking that even those with very little money opt for a private education. It wasn’t always like this, mind you, in the 30 years between 1964 and 1994 a state education left you with skills the job market could appreciate. Having come to Britain at the university level I’ve watched how education works around here with a keen interest. Sometimes I’ll be watching a random show on TV and I’ll look up the presenter and I am completely gobsmacked at the number of times I discover they went to an independent secondary school. If they didn’t they usually managed to make it to Oxbridge. I last did this only a couple of months ago as I enjoyed BBC’s last series of The Great British Bake Off. I googled Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins out of casual interest to see who they actually were – I don’t watch much TV, you see. And there it was, independent high school plus a splash of Cambridge for both…that’s where they met and became friends. That connection has obviously also paid great economic dividends. Mary Berry before you ask was independently educated too. I mean, nowadays it’s almost a casual sport for me to look up presenters and other personalities that I encounter on TV and in the news. My reaction over the years has gone from “he went to independent school?!” to “Of course, he did!” Paul Hollywood, on the other hand, went to a state-run community secondary school. That said, his father owned a chain of bakeries that extended all the way down the east coast from Aberdeen to Lincolnshire. This is how he got his first “big break” into baking that eventually landed him in top hotels and eventually on TV. It’s not an ordinary background by any standards. It’s not today’s topic but if there’s a good substitute for independent school it’s definitely parents that are well connected in the industry that you’d like to forge a career in. Please don’t take my casual observations as evidence; according to a survey reported by The Guardian, only about 7% of Britain’s population go to independent schools but they take up most of the top jobs in public life: according to the survey 71% of top military officers were educated privately, as were 74% of top judges working in the high court; 51% of leading print journalists; 61% of the country’s top doctors (22% of doctors went to grammar schools) – that makes a total of 83% of top doctors from a selective education background; indeed, 32% of MPs having been privately educated as have almost 50% of cabinet ministers. In business the proportion of independently educated CEOs has fallen from 70% in the late 1980s to 54% in the late 2000s and 34% today. That said, however, a good percentage of FTSE-100 CEOs are now non-British and those were not included in the survey. Oxford and Cambridge graduates also dominate top jobs so if you can’t go independent, get your kids into Oxbridge. Now, all this might seem unfair. It might look like there’s a lot of elitism and favouritism going on, however, this is probably not the case in many instances. My own casual observation suggests there is a huge information- and ambition gap between a state education and a privately education. When it comes to ambition a state school’s unwritten mandate appears to be to provide a good quality education to absolutely every body regardless of ability such that they ultimately leave the system employable. As far as Independent schools are concerned they’re bringing up the next generation of leaders in science, business and politics and they constantly reinforce this expectation through slogans and their teaching. The best independent schools are a microcosm of excellence. If excellence it expected of you, you’re much more like to be an outstanding achiever. Most independent schools ensure this through a highly selective admission process that allows entry only to the most able students. I’ll give you a live example. Recently I attended an open day at King Edward’s VI High School for Girls (KEHS). I don’t actually have a daughter so it got a little awkward when the student registering guests in asked me for my daughter’s name, when I said I don’t have one she paused and looked at me in surprise so I quickly made one up, “Write Darcy”, I said, if I had a daughter I’d probably call her Darcy. By the end of my visit I wished I had a daughter just so I could vicariously enjoy life at KEHS through her. The slogan “It’s Cool To Be Clever” was pasted up somewhere in the hall. The students looked sharp and interested. A private chat with the Deputy Head revealed that they don’t have a pass mark for their entry exam. They have four streams in each year and they like to have 22 pupils per class although under exceptional circumstances they’ll take up to 24, that’s a total of 88 to 96 new pupils a year. Their strategy is to take the top 88-96 that pass their entrance exam. “So, how many took the entrance exam last year?” I asked. About 600 girls; that means only 14-16% of those that applied got in. 500+ girls got an unfortunately letter. Having the best brains ensures they get top results and it also ensures students enjoys the process. If you’re not academically gifted this sort of environment would only produce unnecessary pressure possibly leading depression and other problems; it’s certainly not for everyone. KEHS offers scholarships based on merit for top achievers regardless of income with more money set aside to help reduce fees for those that genuinely can’t afford the school. KEHS is one of the very top schools in the country. In the Telegraph’s 2016 GCSE league tables, out of 330 independent schools listed (including boys, girls and co-educational schools) KEHS’ GCSE results ranked 18th: 91.95% of all grades were at A or above, 73.82% of all grades were A*. That’s mind-blowingly good. The boys’ school, King Edward’s School, which sits on the same grounds ranked 33rd in the same table: 87.15% of all grades were at A or above, 60.72% of all grades were A*. Again, amazing. For A-levels, out of 291 schools in the league tables KEHS ranked 23rd with 74.06% of all grades at A or above. KES ranked 7th with 85.59% of all grades at A or above. Keeping in mind many schools opt out of these league tables, these results put both schools very firmly in the top 5-10% nationwide. In addition to great academic facilities they offer lots of extracurricular activities as standard or for very little extra: a swimming pool, gym, sports facilities, music, drama and all sorts of clubs and societies. What parent doesn’t want their kids to go to a school of this calibre? In addition to the impressive facilities at KEHS I was won over by the humility of the students; I felt they were well-rounded, balanced kids. I once sat outside Eton after taking part in the London to Windsor bike ride and watched students coming in and out of the gate; I listened to the nature of their conversations and within 10 minutes said to my then boyfriend (now husband) “I wouldn’t want any son of mine to be like that.” I felt the kids’ confidence crossed too far into the realm of cocky. They just didn't seem normal to me or very balanced. Eton is certainly completely outside our budget but even with a full scholarship I wouldn’t want my son to go there. The pupils lacked the sort of humility I like to see in people that are privileged but fortunately there are many independent schools that manage to get the balance just right. So, Who Are These 7% That Go To Fee-Paying Schools? Contrary to common opinion many people that go to independent schools aren’t from an ultra-wealthy background. Most independent schools are full of people from quite ordinary backgrounds. As an example, Sue Perkins’ father worked for a car dealer and her mother was a secretary; Mel Giedroyc’s father was a historian of Polish-Lithuanian descent. For the sake of completion I’ll note that her family has princely roots dating back to the 13th century. However, none of the literature I can find suggests they have old wealth anymore, that said coming from a background of achievement definitely drives one towards high performance too. Most parents that send their kids to independent schools aren’t doing so because they have tonnes of cash sitting in the bank. They make huge sacrifices to afford the opportunity. Frequently one parent’s salary will be used for bills and the mortgage with the other’s wages mostly going to school fees. They pay for the schooling as they earn, sacrificing holidays and pension savings to make ends meet. For many, taking kids through an independent education means driving an old Toyota Prius when your heart is crying out for the newer, sexier Audi A7, it’s living in a £250k, 3-bed terraced in the slightly less appealing part of town when you could otherwise have afforded the £400k detached. It’s not all Porsches on the drive and Patek Phillipes at Christmas for most privately educated kids although some do, of course, have it all. Are All Fee Paying Schools Equal? No. Some obviously achieve better results that others. The more selective the admission process, the better the school’s results tend to be. Non-selective fee paying schools also exist. They’ll admit you provided you can afford to attend but besides impressive facilities and beautiful grounds they won’t match the academic rigour of a selective independent or even grammar school. That said, if your child isn’t academically gifted then a non-selective private school might be exactly what they need to thrive because smaller class sizes mean they’ll get much more individual attention allowing them a better chance to reach their maximum potential than in a state school with large class sizes.  Who Benefits The Most From Fee-Paying School? Personally, I think groups that face a lot of work place discrimination such as black people have more to gain from private education than middle class white folk. Black people are highly underrepresented in top jobs. Discrimination exists at many levels in British society and having the right academic background definitely gives you that extra push you need. This brings me to the information gap I talked about earlier between state and private education. Private school, besides pushing students academically, appears to provide them with the knowledge they need to get into top careers. Their careers officers are actively engaged in guiding students through the opportunities that are available out there. They more actively engage industry leaders (especially old students) to come back and talk to students about the world of work. Some state schools try to do this too but it’s not as high on the priority list and they have a much smaller budget for careers activities. Then there’s the social connections between students that brings a lot of insider knowledge with them too. For instance, in my second year in Cambridge I got a major shock when I walked into the first lecture to find 90% of the class reading the FT. “Why’s it all of sudden fashionable to be reading the FT?” I asked. “They’re applying for investment banking internships,” my friends told me. I had absolutely no knowledge of this industry. I learnt absolutely everything from my social network. What was this investment banking? What was this Goldman Sachs everyone wanted to get into? Which banks paid the best? I learnt the different careers in the industry and I, that very week, subscribed to receive the FT on a daily basis. My friends, many of whom had been to independent English schools, took all this knowledge that they had for granted. Some of their parents had worked in the banking industry so they knew loads about this very high status career that some of us knew absolutely nothing about. Had I been doing Economics at, say, London Met for instance, would this knowledge have been so accessible to me through the friends I made? I don’t know but I doubt it. Ultimately, one of my key arguments for wanting to send my kids to an independent school is the social network. I want them to make friends with people that know things about things that actually matter, children from high performance backgrounds. Some might call this elitist, I call it ambitious. By the same token I’m not so ambitious that I’ll push my son towards goals that he’s clearly not capable of reaching. We’ll just try our best to get him into an environment that helps him flourish. As an 11-year old I remember my parents taking me to write several high school entrance exams as far and wide as Zimbabwe; not once did they tell me they hoped for or expected a certain result from me. There was no pushing, motivational talks, or private tuition before these tests, I just went; I plan to be as relaxed with my son despite the high hopes I have for him. I’m frightened of my mixed race son helplessly falling into a stereotype of what a mixed/black boy should be: a hip-hop loving dancer, rapper or gangster with little interest in academia. I feel a state education won’t build his potential. Everything I’ve learnt about how it works around here suggests an independent education will help him become whatever he wants to be free from stupid stereotypes; stereotypes that remain pervasive today and are actively being reinforced in this uncertain post-Brexit world. Is A State Education That Bad? No, some areas are served by amazing state schools. Unfortunately, however, people scramble to live near outstanding state schools leading to a massive increase in house prices in the catchment area for the school so poor people are crowded out anyway. The least deprived comprehensive in the country only has 4.2% of pupils with parents on income benefits compared with 68.6% in the most deprived comprehensive. CEER Publications, University of Buckingham. Buckingham.ac.uk (1997-01-02). The best state schools come at a huge premium with some families paying up to £500,000 MORE to be near a top state schools according to the Independent. It’s a particularly interesting time to be talk about schools. The outgoing Oftsed Chief Executive recently described the British state school system as still mediocre and only deserving of a 6.5 out of 10. “We're not there with the South Koreas and the Shanghais and some of the really good European nations and we've got a lot to do to catch up,” he said (Telegraph). There’s no denying that you can of course do well wherever you go; it’s just that some places work harder to help you reach your potential than others. If your gifted child ends up in a comprehensive school that doesn’t separate students by ability be in no doubt that you’re quite actively pushing your child down towards mediocrity. I’ll give you an example from my own life. My parents sent me to Kamuzu Academy (The Eton of Africa) a few weeks late. I’d been at another school for those first few weeks. Having arrived over the weekend I wasn’t sure where I needed to be so on the Monday I followed a girl I’d made friends with to her maths class. To this day 22 years later I recall how painful I found the experience. The teacher spent 15 minutes on an example that should have taken about 3 minutes and I could see some people were clearly not getting it. Even at 11 years old I was so frustrated by the slow pace of the class. At the end of the lesson I blurted, “I think that must be the bottom set because it was so slow.” (Needless to say I wasn’t endearing myself to too many people with careless statements of this nature that came with an unfortunate frequency). Someone suggest I go to another class the next day but no one had been told that they’d actually been split into sets by ability so he didn’t know if it would be any better. On arrival the teacher told me that they were having a test that day, was I sure I wanted to join then? I said it was okay, I’d write the test. That was my second day of school, Tuesday. The next day it transpired I’d scored the top mark alongside another girl and we were both asked to go into the next class, the top set. I knew I belonged there instantly: the faster pace suited me much better and I thoroughly enjoyed more challenging environment. Students need to be set challenges based on their ability. Someone who wasn’t as good at maths would have been as frustrated in the top set as I felt in the bottom set. Performance in all schools – state and private – should set challenges based on ability, we’re not all equally able. Of course not everyone can afford a private education. Those that can’t afford it try their best to get into the few grammar schools that still exist and many complement a state education with private tuition in key areas. Private tuition helps people either get into grammar schools or achieve better GCSE and A-level results. I’ve even heard some parents save for an independent secondary education whilst their children are at a state primary school. This reduces the expenditure from 15 to 16 years of fees to 7 years. Ever the Economist, I’ll conclude by saying that whether you like it or not (and I’m aware many will hate this fact) holding all other factors constant: race, religion, gender, wealth and even a stable, organic-food eating, exercise embracing home, a private education gives a child a big leg up in the perilous journey of career success. If you come from a group that faces a glass ceiling in the work place, for instance if you’re an ethnic minority, female or Muslim the benefits of going private can be gloriously significant indeed. 
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 Okay, so I’m sat on a train trying to mind my own business. I’m sat with other people that all know each other: a mum, a daughter and what appears to be a family friend. Now, anyone who knows me knows that minding my own business is not exactly a forte, I love to take part in conversation but I was feeling a little tired. Well, that was until the daughter tells her mum that her sister and brother-in-law still do things like remind each other: oh, you still owe me for that burger two nights ago or that meal last weekend. I was aghast! “Are they married?” I suddenly butted in and the daughter laughed, “Yes, and they still operate all their finances completely independently”. The train was coming to a stop so I didn’t get to dig in deeper except for the fact that they didn’t even own a joint bank account for household expenses. As I walked off the train I started thinking about what my mum told me: avoid stingy men – they’re not only stingy with their money but they try to control how you spend yours or make such strong value judgments about the way you spend that it causes a lot of bickering. My mum is a smart gal.  If you’re trying to start or grow a business having a stingy husband will hold you back for the following reasons:
Overall, a stingy man will just make running a business less enjoyable. The risks involved are already nerve wracking – anything worth doing will make you nervous – and having a constant force around you that is not supportive will make you feel like pursuing your dream of a business is not worth it. If you think you’ve got the entrepreneurial streak and identify that your man is stingy before you marry him, then this is one of those instances when I’d agree with my mum and say: run girl run. You deserve better! That man will kill your business before it even starts. Without the moral support of my husband I would be nowhere. Yes, you can build a booming business despite negativity around you but why should you have to?  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.  Everyone loves free stuff – it’s human nature; we all have limited resources so if you can obtain something without using your own resources, it pleases you. However, the ubiquitousness of free stuff nowadays has led to some people loving freebies to a fault…let me explain… Have you ever wondered why a good majority of the time when people get something easily they seem to lose it just as easily. For instance, people who’s source of income is crime never seem to get rich except for temporary periods of time. For those of us that abide by the law, when we download free ebooks or get books for free we don’t read the majority of them. I swear, I have loads of free books that I got off Amazon and 80% of them haven’t been read. Of the books that I have paid for, and I have many of those too only one hasn’t been read even after a year and I keep thinking I need to read it. Well, there is actually a scientific reason for this. People who study human behavior and how the brain functions call it negativity bias: people give a lot more weight to losses and negative events than they do to positive events. What does this mean for your life and business success? If you feel you have invested in something, especially learning something new, you’ll take it a lot more seriously. There are two ways you can invest in knowledge: either with money or with time. TIME If you decide to learn something using all the free internet resources available, even if it’s quite simple you will not find all the information in one place. You’ll likely have to use several sources to figure out whatever you need. You value your time and having done the hard work to understand something you’ll be sure to implement it into your life or business. MONEY I’ll give examples from my own life. In 2010 I paid about £300 ($500) for an online writing course. You were set 10 pieces of work but only received subsequent installments when you completed one set of work. Five years later I still haven’t done 80% of the course. Admittedly I was an employee when I signed up to the course and therefore was time poor and I was also on a huge, 6-figure salary so the investment of £300 wasn’t significant to me. Fast forward to 2013. I wanted to join an entrepreneur networking group and program but the fee was £7,000 ($12,000) and I didn’t have that money free. I saved for 6 months and joined the program and to-date I have never taken anything more seriously. I did all the work set to A* standard and I never missed a networking day. That was a lot of money to me and I wanted to get my money’s worth.  One of my favourite authors Grant Cordone expresses exactly the same thought in If You’re Not First, You’re Last. Whilst time and money are two key ways you can invest in something there are other factors that can drive you such as guilt or a coach that pushes you. GUILT As a teenager I always felt guilty that my parents were investing so much in my education so that pushed me and it does push many other people. The education was free to me but it was costing someone that I love (mummy and daddy) dearly and that was enough to push me towards success. GIVING KIDS TOO MUCH There is also a common trend in which one generation works hard to build wealth and subsequent generations lose it. The explanation is the same. The parents invest a lot of time and money building a business and personal asset base. They know the pain of their work and they don’t spend that hard earned cash without careful thought and planning. Their children enjoy the fruits of this labour but have no real connection to the pains their parents went through or the poverty their parents might have grown up with so that wealth is free to the children. You can’t really enjoy the sweetness of success without some concept of the pain of hard work. If someone does all the work for you, you don’t have any real goals to get you out of bed every morning. You don’t care about preserving the wealth that someone else created as much as you would if you made it yourself. In summary, if you want to achieve real success you probably have to roll up your sleeves and get your elbows dirty. Unfortunately that’s the only way success comes. Free stuff won’t take you very far. If you’re so into free stuff that you fail to see the value that exists in many paid resources then it could be the reason you’re stuck in a just-over-broke (j.o.b) cycle. Thomas Edison said it best when he said, “We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work.” I’ll change this a little to apply to this new world where many people want things for free by saying, we often miss opportunity because it requires us to invest time or money. As always, if you’re interested in building a 6-figure product business, check out TheMoneySpotProgram.com.  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.  Spending normally involves small amounts at any one time but an investment normally involves a chunky cash out flow all in one go. Investing is scary, it’s more risky and as such it’s easier to just not do it. I was thinking these things when one of my friends was telling me about how she wanted to invest in a personal development program but thought it was too expensive. It was going to cost her about £2,000 ($3,200) which is a lot of money to spend in one go but if that £2,000 helps to build a business that produces £2,000 worth of profit every month faster then it’s not a big deal. In fact, it’s a fabulous investment. Now, I started thinking about spending vs. investing because I know my friend’s spending habits quite well. On average:
These are not necessities, they are her life’s pleasures. I’m not even counting dinners because let’s face it, a bit of socializing is necessary, it’s just a matter of picking places that don’t break the bank.  Anyway I would conservatively estimate that £40-60 is spent weekly that wouldn’t hurt her to completely eliminate – if you annualize this – I’m a big fan of annualizing –that’s over £2,000 to £3,000 a year. However, it never feels like that when you’re spending it in £3 to £10 increments. That said, you need to spend money wisely: there are a lot of great courses out there but you need to do the one that is relevant to you at that time before moving on to the next. I make it a point to do at least one course every year. When I worked in investment banking I did courses for fun (for example, I did a course in Black History, another in Aromatherapy and Massage, an art class etc.) and ever since I quit the rat race in early 2012 I have focused on courses that help the business. Anyhow, the main point I want to relay here is that you should analyze the return you get when spending money instead of the absolute amount. A suit can be an investment if it helps you get that high-powered job but most of the time, expenditure on clothes is not an investment. Do courses for fun to see how they help to develop your creative side. Indeed, spending less time doing what most people do, like spending lots of money on complete rubbish, can only be good for you. Invest instead.  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness. |
Heather on WealthI enjoy helping people think through their personal finances and blog about that here. Join my personal finance community at The Money Spot™. Categories
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Heather Katsonga-Woodward, a massive personal finance fanatic.
** All views expressed are my own and not those of any employer, past or present. ** Please get professional advice before re-arranging your personal finances.