Education always pays off.

After the civil war in Spain, the republicans who lost to the newly established dictator lost everything: all their possessions, money, property (and relatives too, shot dead).

Those who had an education, including how to take care of your body self and of children, how to wash and clean and how to read and write, got out of the situation much quicker than anybody else. Such is the story told in the book "Los hijos de los vencidos" (The children of the defeated), by Lidia Falcon. A great book.