Reply to: Really need a Plan B.....

[TestMangler]

Plans B's are normally considered in addition to comtracting. Very few contractors will create a plan B that replaces their contracting income. This stems from two reasons, one most contractors while aware they are slightly more entrepreneurial than permies never put in the 100% effort to create a fully sustainable plan B and second the money from contracting is easy & therefore the comfort blanket it provides to soothing.

Best to create supplemental forms of income. Ie. websites of some kind, investments, buy to let's, some sellable software

This way additional income can be increased. When the additional income covers or exceeds your outgoings you've cracked it & can choose to do whatever you want.

Don't say this very often, but, WHS ^^^

[doodab]

Your only looking at it in pure financial terms - like I said, for me it is about them going to school, enjoying it and wanting to go there. It's about having good quality people around them, the best facilities, the best social environment. The private school we applied for didn't have stuck up people in it - yet the quality was the best we had seen. If they are spending most of their days somewhere then you want them to get the most out of it. I never look back at my school days positively and that is not something I want for my kids.

No, I am looking at it as bang for the buck. My perception is that at this stage of his life I get more benefit doing things this way than I would get from paying for a private school.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

This comment alone shows there is a problem.



This is true if children are around their peers. If you stick your child in to an environment where people are sticking rich with connections he is more likely to be labelled an outcast as he doesn't have a helicopter for this 16th birthday and going to Prince Georges parties etc. Sometimes it is best to be top of the rest than bottom of the somebody's.

It's not as black and white as you think. Social mobility isn't about skinting yourself to scrape in to a private school. Also who dictates what is best and what makes people happy with life? If going to a private school is the only way to achieve that then we are all a bit screwed.

Fair point about some private schools but others don't operate the same way.... you can tell when you go into the car park the type of people you are dealing with. e.g. middle class, wealthy, mixture etc. I have found that a lot more people are willing to sacrifice their lifestyle for their child's education.....

Also being top of the rest hardly helps - you are likely to be seen as the rich kid and picked on......

[northernladuk]

The state schools simply are not good enough and don't provide kids with the correct environment or education to go onto the best schools/unis.

This comment alone shows there is a problem.

Ultimately private school is not about the education for me - it is about the social environment and the quality of the people around your children. I have seen the class of students who come out of somewhere like Manchester Grammar school for example where the fees are 10k a year - no state or free Grammar school (e.g. Altrincham Grammer) can even compare to it.

This is true if children are around their peers. If you stick your child in to an environment where people are sticking rich with connections he is more likely to be labelled an outcast as he doesn't have a helicopter for this 16th birthday and going to Prince Georges parties etc. Sometimes it is best to be top of the rest than bottom of the somebody's.

It's not as black and white as you think. Social mobility isn't about skinting yourself to scrape in to a private school. Also who dictates what is best and what makes people happy with life? If going to a private school is the only way to achieve that then we are all a bit screwed.

[eek]

What about Boris?

He just pretends to be an idiot and is all the more dangerous because he can pull it off.

[russell]

True to a point. But your clever successful ex-school friends are not going to help you if you're a bumbling idiot.

.. which I'm sure they remind you of all the time

What about Boris?

[KentPhilip]

You lot are completely missing the point of private schools - it's who you get to know, not what you know.

True to a point. But your clever successful ex-school friends are not going to help you if you're a bumbling idiot.

.. which I'm sure they remind you of all the time

[russell]

Shame you're just a poor, working-class tosser then, eh?

Lovely manners and very polite, if you went to a private school I would tell your parents to ask for a refund!

[eek]

You wouldn't see them in a BMW with > 100K on the clock, for example.

Nah it will be either a Ferrari or similar (recent money billionaires) or a clapped out people carrier (the relatively poorer part of a very old school billionaire family). Both are long term friends of mine living on the same street off Regent's Park.

Both examples show one thing. Cars don't show anything apart from how interested the driver is in cars.

[sasguru]

WHS - the friends who I know that went to private school are definitely of a different social class to those who didn't. They certainly are not arrogant but you can tell from their manners, their approach etc that they are from a good background. That's the type of stuff money can't buy....

You wouldn't see them in a BMW with > 100K on the clock, for example.

[sasguru]

Yes money can't buy manners, but it can buy beautiful women, fast cars, big houses and amazing travel, but who cares if you are not a polite toff who was probably rogered throughout his teens by a prefect.

Shame you're just a poor, working-class tosser then, eh?

[russell]

WHS - the friends who I know that went to private school are definitely of a different social class to those who didn't. They certainly are not arrogant but you can tell from their manners, their approach etc that they are from a good background. That's the type of stuff money can't buy....

Yes money can't buy manners, but it can buy beautiful women, fast cars, big houses and amazing travel, but who cares if you are not a polite toff who was probably rogered throughout his teens by a prefect.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

You lot are completely missing the point of private schools - it's who you get to know, not what you know.
Like it or not private (i.e. public)-school educated people are at the top of almost every institution in the UK and there is an informal old-boys network. Which I use to the max, of course

WHS - the friends who I know that went to private school are definitely of a different social class to those who didn't. They certainly are not arrogant but you can tell from their manners, their approach etc that they are from a good background. That's the type of stuff money can't buy....

[sasguru]

That explains everything.

See what I mean by you being stupid?
It explains very little.

[DimPrawn]

You lot are completely missing the point of private schools - it's who you get to know, not what you know.
Like it or not private (i.e. public)-school educated people are at the top of almost every institution in the UK and there is an informal old-boys network. Which I use to the max, of course

Sas, I know the special school you went to was only for special people like you, but it's not the same thing.

Okay?