Financial Wealth is Unrelated to College Education
For millions of Americans and people around the world, a college education is thought to be the key to financial success. I think this is especially true among people who have never been to college. They think that if they can educate their children better, their children will be better off financially.
I don’t think this is true at all. College teaches people to be good employees. And if you think employees are wealthy, or that a high salary creates wealth, then you will probably disagree with this whole post. Employees are poor because they spend all their time at work. By the time they come home, they don’t have enough time, energy, or desire to get rich. And they will never get rich working for someone else.
A high salary does not create financial wealth either. A high salary only creates high expenses. Nearly all Americans spend as much as they make, and then a little bit more. The higher the salary, the more they spend. It means a more expensive house, cars, dinners and a bunch of junk that will never help them get rich. And, what’s worse is that people think that they are doing well financially when they have a high salary. When in fact, they are actually doing poorly.
Most people are aware that some of the wealthiest people in the world did not graduate from college. The most famous example is Bill Gates. He dropped out because he wanted to focus on Microsoft, and he knew that learning the information taught in college would not be a good use of his time.
Another reason financial wealth is unrelated to college education is that financial skills are not taught in college. Many CFOs are good at helping their employers succeed, but are totally incapable of becoming rich themselves. The reason is that their knowledge base only tells them how to make money for their employer. College does not teach them how to become rich themselves.
When you consider the massive commitment of money and time required for a college education, it becomes clear that it may not be the best use of those resources. Many people have assumed that to be rich you need to have a college education. But in these changing times, those antiquated ideas no longer apply.
This is the ninth post in a series entitled Secrets the Financial Industry doesn’t Want you to Know.
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Related posts:
- The First Book of Financial Education: Rich Dad Poor Dad
- 10 Secrets the Financial Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know
- Five Ways College Students Can Start Investing
- The Debt Curve vs. the Wealth Curve
- First Steps to Financial Education
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is one of my favorite financial books of all time. It's an allegory about a guy who has a terrible job, and how he overcomes challenges to achieve his dreams.
