EDUCATION PAYS
From the NY Times: Alan B. Krueger, an economics professor at Princeton, says the evidence suggests that, up to a point, an additional year of schooling is likely to raise an individual's earnings about 10 percent. For someone earning the national median household income of $42,000, an extra year of training could provide an additional $4,200 a year. Over the span of a career, that could easily add up to $30,000 or $40,000 of present value. If the year's education costs less than that, there is a net gain.

And money is just a tangible benefit. Even apart from any economic gain I would consider my education to be among the greatest gifts I've received. I haven't always seen it that way. There were times when I wanted to do anything other than study. But my parents and my teachers made me stick to it. Sometimes you only really realize what's been given to you with extreme hindsight.