I started plastwreing for my father when I was 14.
Bought a 40 Ford coupe and spent 2 years building it so I would have a richous street racer when I turned 16.
The wirst thing was that my parents wouldn’t let me be on their insurance policy and I had to buy my own and they demanded a minimum of $100k liability.
The insurance cost me $625/year and that was in 1952, almost as much as I had in the car.
When we got married in 1958 I had to promise to quit racing so I sold the 40 for $600 to buy her rings!
Now THERE is a plan. (If you have teenage kids and a business, you can put them to work and there are great tax and financial advantages.) Plus your kid(s) get to learn a skill.
$625/yr in 1952 for car insurance? That is mind-boggling. I remember attending a parochial high school 20 years later and paying $600 a year on a half scholarship.
$625 in 1952 would be about (I think) $4000 or so today.
Ouch.