Clarity (please) — am I an adult or not?
I just had my eighteenth birthday. (It was 31st December for anyone who wants to wish me happy birthday at the end of 2026!)
But did I just become an adult, or did that happen two years ago? It feels like the answer is: “You’re an adult when it’s convenient for someone else.”
One minute you’re a kid, the next minute you’re paying for everything
Let’s start with the basics.
At 16 you’re old enough to: leave school (in some situations), start working properly (including writing pretty cool blogs), pay tax if you earn enough (I don’t), make ‘important decisions about your future’, be told you need to grow up… and possibly before the end of this parliament, old enough to vote.
But then also at 16 you’re too young to: fully control some decisions, be treated like you know what you’re doing, use a sunbed, have a VPN (we all know why!), be trusted with loads of adult stuff.
Then at 18 you’re suddenly expected to have it all figured out: uni, rent, bills, debt, bank accounts, being responsible, planning ahead – you can see where this is going? It’s like after 6570 days (give or take for leap years) of existing there’s some magical switch that flips overnight.
Has anyone woken up and their brain just goes… I now understand interest rates and direct debits, I now know how to run a household budget, and I’m totally ready to owe tens of thousands of pounds?
Adulting without educating
This is the bit that I don’t get. We’re expected to make huge decisions at 17/18 that will affect the rest of our lives… but we aren’t taught the basics of money properly.
Not properly properly. Not in real English.
School will teach you Pythagoras (which is fair enough), and Shakespeare (fine) and how to label a mitochondria…
But does school teach you what a payslip means, what student loan interest means, what a credit score is or what to do if you can’t afford something?
No.
And then we wonder why people panic, or avoid it, or pretend they understand when they don’t.
Everything is expensive and everything feels uncertain
When things are confusing, it’s harder to challenge them. If you don’t understand something, you can’t question it. You can’t compare it and it’s difficult to demand better.
Which is convenient for everyone except the person struggling.
I’m thinking about university. And don’t get me wrong I’m excited. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about the money side. It’s not just the tuition fees, it’s everything else that comes with it… rent that somehow costs more than a small castle, food that isn’t cheap, all the learning materials and random costs that appear out of nowhere (why do you need 45 different kitchen items??).
You just get a loan
Right. Cool. But what does that actually mean?
How much do you pay back?
When do you pay it back?
What happens if you don’t earn much?
How does interest work?
Will I be paying this when I’m 40?
How can I save for a house too?
Will I ever be able to afford a holiday?
I’m doing best to avoid any sort of ball and chain, financial or otherwise.
So, clarity…
Not a webinar, a leaflet or another website. But real financial education, telling us about payslips, budgeting, interest, credit scores and savings. And some regular classroom discussions about how hard it might be financially to go to university and what you should weigh up.
I’m only skimming the surface because of this blog, else I’d be like everyone else – ignoring it and hoping it’ll all work out ok in the end.
To conclude, if we’re talking clarity. Let’s start with real life clarity, so you don’t accidentally mess up your own future. That’s what should grimly welcome you to adulthood.
Happy birthday to me!
Luke Quinn, Teenage Takeover
