'Investing' in College? It Pays to Think Like an Investor

Jack Hough:

College is the best investment you can make, President Obama told students last month at the University of Colorado.

As a metaphor for the benefits of education, that statement is fine. But taken as a claim about the financial returns of a college degree, it poses two problems.

The first is that students and their families still lack sufficient data to estimate long-term returns for specific college degrees the way investors do with stocks and bonds.

The second problem is one of investment risk. Stock investors can manage risk by buying a diverse basket of shares, but a college student bets on a single asset: himself.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 7, 2012 1:11 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas