I think the best strategy to making your kids have a good future is to create a trust fund for them and teach them how not to piss that fund away and how to legally protect if from Uncle Sam or any politician(s) that talks about redistributing it.

Because if it’s not obvious to a lot of folks, it should be pretty obvious right now…Everyone else (companies, politicians, unions, banks,etc) is putting on their best show to try to separate you and your family from you money as much as possible.

I do care about how well my kid does in school, but I’ve given up trying to make heads and tails out of the API school rankings. Schools teach only to the extent of passing tests these days. Better school districts will try to separate kids into respective capabilities to some extent (CarmelV does this a bit). But even then, it has limitations. You can spend money to send your kids to enrichment (which I do), and that sort of helps (at least for language/reading/writing/math). But the majority of the difference lies in what the parent does (or does not do).

I have friends who work with their kids all the time, and naturally they are high achievers. I have my own time/resources limitations right now, so there’s only so much I can do….That’s the fact of life…There’s no such thing as an even playing field…deal with it…

As far as people pursuing their dreams…Yes, I think they should…to the extent that it’s financially possible. Either kid is willing to being starving in pursuit of dream, kid is willing to double up just in case it doesn’t pan out, or kid’s parents are willing to support kid pursuit dreams financially.