> At 17 you should still be thinking about investing in education

I mean, sure, in a perfect world you can postpone retirement savings. But if we're doing perfect world, you shouldn't have to think about "investing in education", your government should have the basic cognitive skills that would let it recognize that they should invest in education - ROI is pretty spectacular.

Realistically, both, because... otherwise you just pick how screwed you'll be later in life.