Wow, those schools are expensive. And I speak as someone who went to a Private school. My parents were a part-time teacher and a greengrocer - but this was back in the days of assisted places - about a fifth of the people in my year were there based on intelligence/exam-passing alone with no regard to the earnings of their parents.

For some years I have earned far more than my dad ever earned. I'm earning a little under the national average wage and quite a bit under the London average. My girlfriend earns what I would have considered to be a fortune just a few years ago. We can't even think of buying somewhere in London to live. We're being outbid on 2-bedroom flats and we're nearly in Bedfordshire. In a few years we'll move North and become part of the problem of pricing locals out of their houses up there. My gf's lucky - they're keen to relocate Civil Servants up North; most people don't have the option as the work is down here - I'll probably have to take a severe pay cut when we go.