What's the better investment?

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Not comic books, not baseball cards...

Education? Or memories?

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

Memories.

Hear me out... I believe that the basics of education are important but beyond that you can learn so much more while creating memories than from formal education.

 

[Gabby01]

Both, and here's how:

1. Go to college. Study a foreign language.

2. Use your credentials to get a job in another country.

3. Make memories

 

[#1hoosierfan]

My education made it possible so that I have more money to go make memories.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I agree with @#1hoosierfan my education made it possible for me to have the money to make memories.

 

[tx911]

Well, you're going to make memories either way.

The choice is whether you want your memories to be of wondering if you'll be able to pay your bills, or trips to WDW.

 

[WilliamNels]

I looked at both and ended up going with the one that gave me more flexibility on dates. The cost difference wasn’t huge, but that little bit of freedom really mattered to us.

 

[NannyBeBe]

Some of my fondest memories are from moments that did not require money or education. They are moments spent with my loved ones.

 

[longboard55]

Working sucks, no question about it especially when your friends are in Europe for their gap year. And to get a good job you need an education which also sucks. But living financially independent where you are not concerned always for money, with a house with no mortgage and a fat IRA and when can do the things you want later in life, and enjoy memories with your kids and their new families is pretty awesome

 

[fla4fun]

I think it’s important to be honest with yourself when it comes to education. University degrees aren’t for everyone, and many people rack up debt pursuing a degree they aren’t all that interested in. Perhaps the thing you are passionate about is more of a technical school or apprenticeship type of career. There is no shame in that. We work for a lot of years on this earth and we should be reasonably happy doing so. If we are happy in our careers, I feel that happiness spreads to the other parts of our lives and we make good memories as a result. No one who hates their job is making many good memories.

I think the best investment is to be true to yourself when deciding how you want to spend your life. Invest your time and energy pursuing a career that truly makes you happy, whatever education that requires, and other good things will typically follow.

 

[tvguy]

Memories, hands down.
I think classroom education is overrated. Hands on, on the job education, work experience is far more valuable. What you learn in the classroom often isn't how things are done in the real world outside academia.
My daughter is dealing with that as she has returned to school at age 34. There are 12 students in her program, and she is the only one over the age of 20. And she is older, so far, than her Professors. She has to unlearn how things really are, and relearn the textbook version of how things are done.

 

[LuvOrlando]

For me it is free all the way, I can learn nearly anything for free via open source.

For kids, I was always staunch for both but ten years ago I would have said $ for education edges out memories. These days and after putting two kids through college I now know it is a very costly education and it depends on where you live to be able to pay back that education. Pfft used to be we could count on a job as a secretary or in construction to make ends meet but these days so many kids with diplomas and student loans are unemployed and nowhere to go, as a result, memories have pulled into the lead 100%.

Go ahead, pull the kids from school for a beach or WDW trip every year, who cares about the schools dirty looks (OK I never cared and my kids went every year. In HS insist on some VoTech skill like cutting hair or mechanic training and send them to Community College for a Liberal Arts degree with at least one Accounting class because it is useful. Whatever you were going to pay for the fancy college just buy them a house with it, make it multi family so they can rent where they don't live and move along, you just saved a decade of that kids life in stress and debt and put them on the square that was the real goal anyway. Landlord = income & rental property = roof over their head, done. I file this under things I wish I knew about ten years ago