When I was a little kid, I used to always look on the ground for lost money. It was amazing that people would loose so much money. Granted it was mainly pennies and dimes, but I sometimes found quarters (back when quarters bought a pack of baseball cards). I no longer look down where I am stepping all the time, but I do sometimes find money.
Money is potentially undergoing a huge change. In its early days, money was made of something tangible with value and had a value such as a day’s wages. Later it became made of something cheap, but backed by a promise to exchange for something tangible like silver or gold. Now money is made from something worthless and only worth what others think based on how much the particular country has produced. If some computer nerds have their way, everything will be done using virtual money that has no physical properties at all and there will never be any more of. This would force the value of everything to be a fraction of this total and ever decreasing.
The author of the list is specifically speaking from experience with large financial transactions with risks that can be uncovered by doing more and more of the right kind of research. Like buying a car. Understanding how much the value of the benefits of a car cost and how much the costs of a car might be, one can eventually determine the value of a car. A car that only goes 40 miles a trip is worthless to a person who needs to drive 50 miles each way twice a day. A car that breaks down all the time is not suitable for a mother commuting each day with her kids. A car that costs a million dollars is not suitable for a minimum wage earner.
The same applies to going to college. Paying $60,000 a year for eight years to get a PhD in music it not a wise investment for someone who cannot discern a chord. Paying $60,000 a year for eight years for a PhD in computer science may be for someone trying to create a new internet. Paying $15,000 for four years to get a structural engineering degree is a wise investment for someone with the right abilities, but is not for someone who struggles with addition and subtraction.
Every significant financial transaction requires researching the value and researching the risks associated with it. Buying a $100,000 sportscar for someone who can’t drive a stick shift is not wise. Spending $400 to learn how to drive a stick shift may be a life saving outcome.
One of my favorite phrases is “God gave you a brain, use it.” Our lives are full of easy tasks like eating our favorite food for breakfast that our parents fixed for us. But they are also full of opportunities to grow and learn, like getting a college degree or learning to play guitar. Sometimes the best things in life are hard and sometimes the worst things in life seem right. Using our brain is how we know which investments should pay off and which to avoid. So go use the brain God gave you and don’t lose money.