Taxes
I have been a student for the last five years. First, of course, was the poverty of living off what my parents saw fit to give me (under no circumstances would they allow me to have a student loan).

Then the Masters degree. For this, I had a rather healthy amount of funding.

Same goes for my PhD, although I got greedy and decided to make some more money through marking.

I got paid for the marking today. The cheque was for a smaller amount than I was supposed to receive. I puzzled over this for a while, before remembering that in the real world people pay taxes rather than waiting for parents and government bodies to throw money in your direction.

That's how long it's been since I had a proper job.
( Queen of Cheesecake, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 10:52, 2 replies)

erm..
"parents.....under no circumstances would they allow me to have a student loan"

um? good for you that you didn't have a loan, but you need to get a spine- you don't need parental permission for a student loan!! (apologies if you are some sort of child genius in which case I suppose you wouldn't be allowed one anyway)
(chipper, Fri 3 Apr 2009, 15:31, closed)

Ha! I know the feeling...
I was almost 30 before I earned enough to pay income tax - and there's precious little funding for humanities types like me.

I'm one of the only people in the world to have looked at the deductions column in a pay-slip, seen something written there, and gone, "YESSSSSS!"
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Sat 4 Apr 2009, 12:29, closed)