Our Most Important Assets
The large investment that we will make in Abby’s college education will not just accrue benefits to Abby and her family, but to society and to the world.
Dear Clients:
I find almost all of the work that we do for clients - financial planning, investment management, administration - to be highly satisfying and rewarding. However, of all the things we do, two things stand alone at the top: charitable planning, with its focus on giving to causes and people in need, and education planning, with its focus on the creation of human capital in our young people.
With regards to education planning, I am now “eating my own cooking.” A little over a week ago, Hannah and I accompanied our daughter Abby to her matriculation at Kenyon College in Ohio, an hour outside of the wonderful small city and state capital Columbus. We spent four days moving her into her dorm room, going to Walmart for supplies, and attending the several different orientation events that the school hosted for new students and their parents, culminating with a formal pomp and circumstance convocation ceremony.
The past few months have not been easy for me as the past weekend approached. The prospect of one of our most important and precious “assets” (the other being our son) leaving our home and going far away to school has challenged me, and I have sought out the generous wisdom of other parents who have gone through this rite of passage. I have even at moments questioned the modern purpose and value of a college education, wondering if it still makes sense here in 2023.
However, as I walked the beautiful campus, met students, parents, and faculty, and listened to talks and speeches, I concluded that while higher education certainly has its challenges, it still represents, in my view, the best process that our society has to transform young hearts and minds into peaceful, just, and knowing leaders. I fully support that mission, especially in the times we live in.
We will spend approximately $250,000 on Abby’s college education. She will spend four years of her life living and studying away from her family, and when she (hopefully) reaches graduation, she will be a different person than she would otherwise have become had she remained at home with her family. We hope that the person she becomes will possess reason and discernment, respect for other people and cultures, and a desire to live productively and generously. If she develops in those ways, the large investment that we make will not just accrue benefits to Abby and her family, but to society and to the world. In that sense, the effects of any one single individual’s education reverberate far beyond, and the large cost of higher education can be far surpassed by the extraordinary benefits that it might yield. At least that is the hope.
New Capital is lucky to have clients who combine charity with education, contributing to scholarships, foundations, and endowments in support of expanding the reach of education. We are also lucky to be able to discuss educating individual young people in your families. Over the past few years, we have expanded our NextGen program and now enjoy meeting with young people to discuss financial and investment management as they both prepare to enter and then leave college. If we can help with your most precious assets and their educational journeys, please do not hesitate to ask.
Hannah and I now join the ranks of many of our clients whose children have gone off to college, and I now understand what you have experienced. I also better understand the joy of our clients whose children decide to return home after college or at any time later in life, to be closer to their parents and family - you are lucky indeed to have “another chance” to have your children nearby.
Abby’s departure for college will make me a wiser advisor, and when a client tells me that “Sally leaves for college in a few months” I will know much better what you are going through, and as always, New Capital will be there with you too.
Leonard M. Golub, CFA