College: A Sound Investment Essay

Cost is always about loss. When we consider probability cost, we consider what losses an opportunity brings us. One of the most enduring opportunities individuals call for is education. Society is immersed in messages about the benefits of education, but what about the costs? whatsoever important decision should involve a sound cost-benefit analysis. Do the benefits outbalance the costs? This is the basic question of decision-makingof investment. Is college worth the investment? In musing of this question, I would first need an estimate of the cost of college.First, I would look into the basic, overt costs. Tuition, books, room and board, travel expenses (for commuters) each of these comp whiznts would subtracts from my finances. Suppose all of these expenses transmit up to roughly fifteen thousand dollars per year. Now, if I subtracted around louvre thousand dollars for scholarship, I would be left with a net debt of decennium thousand dollars per year. At the end of my col lege experience, the cost of college would be around forty thousand dollars, correct? IncorrectI lead failed to consider the occult costs of college.Namely, I hurl not aken into account the wages I prepare lost because I chose to be in the classroom alternatively than in the workforce. With a high school education, I might have expected a job that generates perhaps fifteen thousand dollars a year. Four years of this wage would leave me with a gross attain of sixty thousand dollars. So, what is my overall cost of college now? 100,000 dollars. What was I persuasion? For one, I was thinking that without a higher education I could have expected my wages to rise by at most cinque thousand dollars, if I was being generous.No advancement in my nowledge or skill sets would have corresponded with no job growth opportunities and thus no significant income growth. Therefore, short of loving the lottery, my wages would remain relatively stagnant. I was also thinking that with a college degree as my backing, I would have the leverage to position myself into an entry-level job that would pay at the very stripped-down twenty-thousand to twenty-five thousand dollars. Further, I was thinking that entry-level positions lead to advancement. Entry-level positions lead to opportunity.With a decade of strong ork ethic, I have a respectable obtain of cracking the forty to fifty thousand dollar barrier, if not more. With tho two years of such a salary, I would compensate for the one hundred thousand dollar investment I made to take care my career. I was thinking that I would much rather retire with a net worth of in the hundreds of thousands rather than the prospect of a loneliness where the number 100,000 is still as magical and elusive as that winning lottery number. Most important, I was thinking that I would gladly pay the opportunity cost today to realize the opportunityfor myself and for my future familytomorrow.