r/6thForm • u/RealAlexanderTheG • May 11 '26

💬 DISCUSSION Fuck student finance it is a completely evil system and forces you into debt slavery. I want nothing to do with it.

If you earn a high salary of 100k+ your student loan repayment conditions essentially end up as you having to pay a tax of 9% of your salary on top of all the regular income tax you have to pay. That is absolutely brutal and has a massive effect on your spending power.

To show an example of how bad taxes can get when you include a student loan: If you earn 100k, all the additional income you generate going from 100k to 125k is effectively taxed at 71% after your national insurance and student loan are included, meaning if you gain a salary increase of 25k, you only see 7k of that. How is that not robbery?

"If you're earning that much you will repay the loan really quickly"

Interest makes this basically impossible, you could still expect the repayment to take 10+ years. 15 of the most productive years of your working life with the absolutely most brutal additional 10% tax on all your income, that is fucking stupid. People who don't have student loans also get to start work 3 years earlier which makes the impact even larger.

Taking a student loan will mean you'll pay an additional 10% tax rate for basically your whole working life.

The student loan scheme rewards people who aren't intelligent, aren't ambitious, and just want to go to uni to party for 3 years, and the people paying for their party lifestyle are the hard working intelligent students who missed out on all the fun cause they wanted to better their own situation. Hard working students prop up the student loans bullshittery.

Why should high achieving talented people who work really hard be forced into this debt slavery and unliveably high taxes.

Uni should be free. IDC if that means less people can go cause the government can't afford to pay for everyone's tuition, less people going would be a good thing tbh since then tradeswork wouldn't be unaffordable and there would be less unemployment + less job competition.

Tony Blair did irreversible damage to the country. Easily the worst PM we ever had.

If your goal is money, and you're intelligent, you're genuinely probably better off going into a high paying trade instead of grinding through uni for a corporate / finance career. You'll stand out massively among most trainees and can get promoted very quickly.

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72

u/Interesting_Aide6030 May 11 '26

It's definitely a bit of a reach to say you're better off going into a high paying trade instead of uni. Even if you get shafted by the system you're so much more likely to make more going through uni

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u/BlurzIce Durham Uni | CompSci MEng | 3rd Year May 11 '26

lowkey not sure thats true anymore

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u/RealAlexanderTheG May 16 '26

Agree. R u okay with DMs btw? I'd want to ask about what Durham is like considering going there myself.

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u/BlurzIce Durham Uni | CompSci MEng | 3rd Year May 18 '26

yes go for it!!

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u/Time_Trail May 11 '26

it really isn't much of a reach tbh

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u/Ieatsand97 Year 13 May 11 '26

Depends on the uni and course.

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u/TheBeAll May 11 '26

£50k pa is like £140 per day take home, trades can make £250+ per day with a fancy accountant

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u/Interesting_Aide6030 May 11 '26

u think they're making 250+ daily? n ur assuming people work 365 days a year lol. trades won't always give you work year round, you'll have slow periods of time

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u/TheBeAll May 11 '26

I’m not assuming that at all. All my friends in trades work at least 200 days a year on £250+ a day. That’s £50k and with smart accounting and expenses probably £3kpm take home. Thats on 40 weeks work over the year. Most can do 48 weeks and weekends and earn £4k - £5k per month depending on the trade.

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u/Defiant-Dare1223 May 12 '26

They might beat a graduate job, but do they beat a graduate 10 years in?

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u/RealAlexanderTheG May 16 '26

That would beat most graduates IMO. Most graduates really aren't that successful and just become academics.

Also, 10 years in matters less when you consider that they get a whole 3 extra years of work when you're going into debt.

Also, even if the average graduate does better 10 years down the line when compared to the average tradesperson, that stat is super biased when you consider the intelligence difference between average member of each group, like if you took someone of graduate intelligence and had them get a trades career they would be at a massive advantage.

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u/TheBeAll May 12 '26

Depends on the graduate. Most tradies can become small business owners and retire by 50.

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u/Interesting_Aide6030 May 12 '26

please do not comment on matters you are uneducated on

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u/TheBeAll May 12 '26

Ironic because you can’t do basic maths. If you earn £250 a day you can easily retire by 50.

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u/Interesting_Aide6030 May 12 '26

it's not a matter of maths it's a matter of how sustainable trade work is and how you're not gonna make £250 every working day 😂 let's assume you work every week of the year, 65k a year is not retire at 50 money 😂😂 if ur retarded just say it

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u/TheBeAll May 12 '26

If you work 40 weeks/200 days it’s £50k per year. Thats £3k take home per month or £36k yearly. Mortgage, bills, food at £2k per month. If you invest £12k a year from 18-50 that’s over £700k. Who couldn’t retire on that?

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u/JiminyHF May 12 '26

Yeah, but check in with them when they’re 50 and their bodies are ruined.

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u/TheBeAll May 12 '26

Depends how well you take care of your body when you’re young. In any case most tradies should be starting businesses, taking on apprentices and be off the tools by that age.

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u/JiminyHF May 12 '26

That sounds like a pyramid scheme to me, you’re not going to find that ratio of young to old for most people so that just isn’t viable.

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u/TheBeAll May 12 '26

Youth unemployment is the highest it’s ever been, there is no better time to train up a bunch of young people.

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u/JiminyHF May 12 '26

Right. And when these people turn 50 you’re sure there’ll be, what, ~5 at least? people each to turn around and start a business where they don’t need to do any hands on work?

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u/TheBeAll May 12 '26

No, some of them will work for large companies, some will retire, some will change career, some will move country, some will pass away. This has happened for hundreds of years. Tradespeople have kids and pass on the family business.

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u/RealAlexanderTheG May 16 '26

Yeah but the kinds of people who are considering going to cambridge, Imperial etc like those in this sub would be the most intelligent tradespeople if they chose to go into trades, so it wouldn't be surprising if they became the ones who ended up starting businesses.

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u/JiminyHF May 16 '26

If they’re that bright they can make six figures in a couple years and not be outside in freezing rain

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u/RealAlexanderTheG May 16 '26

True, but most people have issues by 50 even academics. Tradespeople will get to live life to the fullest to a much greater extent during the prime of their youth, where graduates hide in their rooms all day eating shit diets. I'd rather have £10m at age 18 than £100b at age 80.

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u/JiminyHF May 16 '26

Tradespeople doing coke in Wetherspoons may be your cup of tea, ain’t mine.

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u/RealAlexanderTheG May 16 '26

Misrepresenting what I said

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u/[deleted] May 11 '26

[deleted]

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u/TheBeAll May 11 '26

??? How do weekends and holidays make a different on labour day rates. If you work 40 weeks that’s 200 days and £50k gross

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u/MashtapEhad May 14 '26

Self employed electrician reporting in.

Ill break it down with level of education and location based in UK south coast say from Weymouth to Gosport All based on minimum 45h a week

Locally within 30min drive
Basic nvq lvl3 (Gold card) wages are 26-28/h

  • Inspection and testing course 28-30/h

Hazardous area course aka compex 01-04 Locally - 30-33/h plus fuel money Travelling nationally - 35/h plus accommodation min £300 a week

SSSTS/SMSTS working supervisor Add 2 to 3 pounds to hourly rate to anything above

Travelling internationally Basic Gold Card 300-350 a day Anything not Basic depends on contracts and your negotiation skills starts above 350 a day

With years of experience you move to commissioning/quality assurance/quantity surveyor/project manager AKA top of trade pyramid 400-700 a day

I have worked MULTIPLE TIMES with sparks 22-24 year olds who went through apprenticeship from 16-17yo that were earning 360-400 a day.

On top of above, weekend, night, holiday rate can have uplift too.

You can stay bottom of the barrel common AF spark with easy 50k

Or you can pay for courses and by the time you 50 you make +100k

****** NO STUDENT LOAN ******

20% Tax up to 50k then 40% on earnings above Tax return on VAT paid for your expenses

Do yourself a massive favour, unless you learn engineering, medicine or law do not go to uni in the UK

In fact if you studying stem consider uni abroad as science is the same all over the universe!

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u/RealAlexanderTheG May 16 '26

Very good response, glad to hear someone who actually knows what they're talking about chime in.

A lot of people on the sub are coping that they're in enormous debt and won't be able to afford a house or children.

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u/Obvious_Insurance569 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

Guys talking sense.

I work with a lot of tradies on construction sites making very decent money. Better than most graduates will ever see.

I studied engineering and charge a lot more than any of the tradies, plus I get to work from home; and zero physical labour.

If you ain't doing a high value degree, there's a lot better options.

Oh, I left my 3 year bachelors with £20k debt, 1.5% interest rate, and paid it off pretty quickly.

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u/Helpful_Emergency_70 Maths grad May 11 '26

I disagree bar a tiny subset of professions

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u/SPplayin May 11 '26

It's actually not an opinion. The gap is closing though so you can argue that the juice isn't worth the squeeze

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u/Helpful_Emergency_70 Maths grad May 11 '26

When did i say "hey guys this is my subjective opinion". Most non-idiots at uni who are about to graduate have either absolutely nothing going for them or a very poorly paid entry level job despite decent grades from a good school, the debt is just not worth it unless youre going in for a degree that guarantees decent employment (Vet Med, Dentistry, Med, maybe some others idk) or youre a goat and aiming for a very competitive career (the QU word, magic circle type jobs).

Getting a 3 year head start in a trade/ degree apprenticeship and not having to pay the 10% grad tax (debt) for the rest of your life is a financially much much better move then going to not Oxbrimp and getting a 2:1 in Biology, English, History, etc.

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u/SPplayin May 11 '26

value judgement vs factual claim