Reading posts and comments at Jr. Ganymede this week led again to thoughts of the Studio Ghibli animated film “From Up on Poppy Hill.” That one has lodged in my heart, and various expressions left here by many of a yearning for honorable family life that creates whole children who are becoming capable manly men and womanly women keep bumping against “Poppy Hill.” So, I watched it again tonight.

The setting is Yokohama 1963, and the central character is the 16-year-old daughter of a sea captain, who was lost when his cargo ship hit a mine during the Korean War. (more…)

He said the Amish stop schooling at age 14 and start working full time to accumulate funds to buy their own place. Which he said they do early to mid 20s. They live at home so all their money goes to savings. That is an incredible model. Grubstake of $150k by the time you are ready to get married makes one heckuva difference.

-from here

It’s time to be serious. Education has its place. Though with way more caveats than the mainstream will know. Don’t drop out of school and work full-time (probably). You won’t accumulate $150k. But the Amish have the right idea.

Grubstake mindset. Parents should have the goal that kids contribute. We pay our kids no allowance and they have to work to earn the money for any extracurriculars they want to be in. Parents should be working with the child to accumulate a grubstake. Not to accumulate a college fund. Not going into debt in college is a huge goal, but paying tens or even hundreds of thousands is almost pure loss unless you have a very specific professional plan in mind. The grubstake is to get started in family, house, and career.

Imagine your daughter being debt free in college and having $20,000 to get married on. Once married, having the experience of looking for side projects to earn money, so she can make income in a way that fits into family life.

Imagine your son having the work experience and mindset to start businesses.

Your children should still be involved in home production. We pay our kids for the eggs from their poultry.

This is not to say that you as a parent should not offer any financial support at all. You absolutely should. Making them earn their own money is a tactic, not a principle. If you want your children to succeed, if you want grandchildren, you mustn’t be like the parents of the world and throw them out to the wolves of the world without real guidance and support. (Except, perversely, if they want to find themselves with a year in Europe or with a decade of playing video games in the basement.)

You should absolutely be willing to let your children’s young families live with you while they accumulate the funds to buy a home, start a business, finish up a valuable professional education. You should absolutely plan on paying for maternities and other expenses that will help your kids start a family right away.

We were comfortable and were feeling like we could rest on our laurels financially–until we started calculating how much we would need to really help our kids when they were having their first few children. Our budget got tight again. We are back to scrambling again.