Investment Advice

My first college class is going well. It's been only slightly more time-consuming than I expected, not quite as difficult as I feared, and has gotten me as excited about learning again as I'd hoped (so far, at least - for all three points). This being the first week in a macroeconomics class we've had some pretty basic assignments, one of which was to review some articles on a few select websites and post our thoughts, then we were to read other people's posts and reply to a few. One of my classmates wrote his post in response to a speech by Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, on the Federal Reserve's website. My classmate mentioned that he agreed with Chairman Bernanke's thoughts regarding what Chairman Bernanke perceived to be the best investment advice he could give... Get an education.

This thought struck a chord with me, we constantly hear the leadership of the church talk about how important education is and it got me thinking about the "investment cost/returns" that an education generates. An education is initiated as a baby and generally builds until at least high school graduation and for most people far beyond their diploma. The real "returns" other than the feeling of self accomplishment don't really kick in until at least high school graduation, then those benefits can serve us with returns on our investment until we're old. Even retirement doesn't dull all the benefits of an education since we can pass on our knowledge to those around us through official or un-official methods. Truly, education is an excellent investment. There is, however, a limit on the returns we can gain from education and I realized that Chairman Bernanke and my classmate were wrong, education is not the best investment we can make.

To me there is a clear-cut winner when investing in the family (and good friends who may as well be family). Depending on the situation, a family can immediately provide a person with things far more important than an educationally-based self worth or monetary compensation for applied knowledge. The returns based on a familial investment don't have to wait until high school graduation, don't begin to diminish at retirement, and don't have to be subject to the fluctuations of an economy or industry. If we invest in a family of our own, the benefits can grow exponentially through children, in-laws (though some may put this in the "expense" column rather than the "revenue" column), grand-children, etc. The returns on the family investment no doubt far outweigh any other that is available to us. It's something that can provide a benefit to us from the day we're born to the day we die. And if we so choose, those benefits can continue to increase exponentially even after death.

While I restrained myself from jumping into a theological discussion in our online classroom (it is after all only the first week), I was able to make my point in a reply to my classmate's post. Ultimately it's true, education is an important and wise investment, and not just the formal kind but a life-long pursuit of greater knowledge and truth is imperative to our own progression; but at the end of the day family will always trump all other investment opportunities. Regardless of the "cost" we may have to put forth to gain/maintain a successful family, the family is the only investment which can truly have endlessly increasing returns... and hey, that's an investor's dream.

Labels: college, family, religion

posted by Brett at 12:32 PM