Asset classes—stocks, bonds, real estate, collectibles— are always competing with one another. Each clamors for our spare dollars. For periods we favor one asset class over others (e.g., stocks from 1982 to 2000). But when a collective judgment is reached that a particular asset class has been bid up too high, dollars are pulled and the asset class shrinks in value. Real estate may now be at that point. I can think of only one asset class that in my adult life has outperformed GDP growth plus inflation yet has been blissfully immune from busts-any busts at all. That is the value of a four-year-college degree. When I graduated from college in 1976, our class joker had T shirts made up that said "$24,000 for one diploma and a lousy T shirt." Actually my diploma and shirt cost only $12,000, as I had transferred from a community college where I'd been on a track scholarship. Those Adidas spikes, pricey at $24.95 in the early 1970s, were a great investment.
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