Last class, two groups presented their College Opportunity Cost presentations. The first presentation was comparing two universities: Columbia University and Georgia Tech. Their presentation was organized well and their transitions were smooth. I felt like Tanya did the best job speaking. By the time the presentation was over, the audience was generally convinced that there wasn't much benefit from going to Columbia vs. going to Georgia Tech. The next group included Jack, Dennis, Nick, and Sohrob. Their presentation had a lot of good data in it, but it was very difficult to follow. I don't think there will be one presentation who tries to prove that an Ivy League diploma will do you any better in the long run than a "non-top tier" school will.
Last Thursday my laptop stopped working. It had a full battery, but it wouldn't turn on. My mom brought it into a mac repair store and the lady there told her that it was a problem with the mother board, and it would cost about S$1000 to repair. Since my computer it already pretty old, my parents don't see a point in spending so much money on a repair when it will likely break again soon. I e-mailed my father about it (he's in KL for work) and he told me to start researching laptops I am interested in buying. My first choice for a computer would be a MacBook Pro 15". If I were to buy it off the Singapore Apple website it would cost S$2,488 (MacBook Pro 15"). On the American Apple website, the same computer costs US$1,799(US MacBook Pro 15"). If you convert that price to the Singapore currency (1.225), using an online converter (http://www.xe.com/), the price becomes $2,203. This is over 200 dollars less than the price on the Singapore Apple site. It would cost quite a bit to ship over a laptop from the US though, and I have no relatives coming from their to visit until Christmas (an awfully long time without my own laptop). The next laptop I'm researching is a ASUS K501. This laptop only costs S$750. The difference between prices is S$1,738. If I were to invest this with a 9% interest rate for 40 years I'd make S$54,589. I could buy multiple laptops with that money!
In Zarima's most recent blog, http://sb-sas33372.blogspot.sg/2012/09/sept-10-2012.html, she talks about the 529 plan. The Greco's use this plan for college savings. They put money into an investment fund and an investment manager manages it. As the time comes closer to Zarima's first year of college, the majority of the plan is in bonds (the most reliable). I wonder if a better option would to just make your own index and manage it yourself instead of paying a manager to do it for you.
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