Adulting is tough. Once you sober up from college and realize that there are real life tasks to be performed it all hits you at once. The problem then is that you have spent, in my case 18 years in school and yet none of that has prepared us for reality. I can speak passable French and Irish ( both never used), know the different types of clouds in the sky and tell you when the battle of Hastings was fought. Apparently all vital information for our adult years taught to us when we are young.
Then you head for college and learn how to drink like a fish and sleep through an earthquake. Possibly some other stuff too depending on your course but I can't remember any of it. Don't know how I graduated come to think of it.
Then you find yourself on the job hunt and no idea where your heading over the next ten years. Not everybody, but most people in their 20's drift along unsure of what to do next. Next thing you know it's time to set up a mortgage, do tax returns, sort out insurance, cook healthy food and generally be an adult like the previous generation. That's when it hits you. We didn't learn any of this along the way.
I have no idea what taxes mean, how to file them or how to make the most of my situation. That's a class I would take now as it can save you thousands doing them the right way. I did get a mortgage but the struggle was real. Starting from scratch, researching every step along the way and dealing with banks and paperwork.
Phone calls and mortgage advisers.
Another vital class.
I could probably skip French since i've never once needed to use it. The previous generation had a lot less legislation and written responsibilities but had a lot more life experience. Less time in the class room and more time working with their family and from a younger age.
Learning life skills, like how to provide for themselves and their family. These would serve people a lot better than some of the unnecessary classes forced on students while there is an obesity and snowflake epidemic among the next generation behind me.
I learned a good one this week from an offhand comment. My manager mentioned it to me during my shift at work. I have health insurance as part of my job, it's taken out of my wages every month the same as my pension and other taxes. Never paid much attention to it. I have a card for it but that was sent to me when I joined.
Last year I ended up in A+E with my appendix about to burst. I had rushed in there from home and didn't have that card. Nobody asked for it and i've never been sick before so never had to do anything with my health insurance so didn't have a clue what it was covering. I went in as a free patient as I was rushed to surgery and wasn't paying attention to anything else at the time.
That was fine and the surgery went well. Only spent 4 days in hospital as a free patient but apparently I was entitled to a private room on this insurance. Other benefits ect...
Nobody ever mentioned any of this before. Now I have also found out that I can claim back some of the expenses from this emergency that nobody ever mentioned either. I found what receipts i could and downloaded the app which let me submit the claims and they were payed out two days later.
It took 30 minutes to claim what I was entitled to but never knew about. That is €225 that I would have left behind me if my manager hadn't mentioned claiming something from his kids doctor. Turns out there were other bits I could have been getting from this as well with opticians and dentists which I do use.
I know for a fact that this is the same with my taxes and that will be the next task to try and get everything that I am owed from the system but never told about. It will take time and I will have to start at the beginning but there are lots of reasons to make the effort as I pay massive tax with nothing to show for it.
These are the lessons I would love to have learned at school rather than half the crap that has never once been useful in my life.
If you have a chance I would urge you to take a look at your own options and see where there is money floating around. It's hard earned so i would hate to leave easy money behind me which will only go to a company of the government instead of your pocket.
