“Can you believe it’s easier to get a credit card than a savings account?” – WOW

P.S. just let me know when you’re coming so I can make time :)

Ahhh… well thanks for the additional insight! Do you find it’s good or bad that it’s super expensive to get one there? I.e. do you see lots of people out of debt, or do you think it hinders growth?

Also – and most importantly – can I come visit you the next time I go out there? :)

There could be worse things to be internet famous for :)

Very different for me too having grown up the same! I had no say in whether I was going to college or not, and looking back I’m super grateful for it as who knows what I would have chosen on my own :)

I think it definitely depends on demographics, just like in the U.S., about how many go to on to University in Australia. My husband is Australian (we live in the U.S. now) and he was the first in his family to go to University. He has about 30 first cousins and only about 5 of them (including his brother, but not his sister) went to Uni. It might not even be that many. And of the “little cousins” we call them (kids of first cousins), only a handful of them went to Uni also. Many of them went to the equivalent of a community college or did an apprenticeship and became certified in a trade. But, many just went straight to work. I am always shocked when yet another cousin graduates high school and I find out that they aren’t going to University either. It’s a different mentality than what I grew up with, where it was just an assumed next step. And most of our Australian friends went to University, but in my husband’s (big) family, it’s definitely not the norm. Granted, they have all managed to be pretty successful.