This post is part of a series where personal finance expert Dan Solin looks at money secrets that help the rich stay rich. See the first five secrets.

I give a lot of talks to groups of investors. I like to ask this question:

How many of you made most of your money investing in the stock market?

Very few hands go up.

I get the same result when I ask: How many of you know someone who made most of his or her money investing in the stock market?

Let's drop to the bottom line:

Rich people invest in themselves.

Poor people invest in "things" that give them instant gratification, like plasma screen TVs and flashy cars.

I don't mean to be glib. Rich people can afford education and great health care. Poor people often can't. A great education and good health positions rich people to get richer.

Financial winter is here and the temperature of the market seems to be dropping anew. Credit markets are frozen and the line for government handouts grows by the day. There is no easy fix to the morass.

That much is clear.

As such, we will have plenty of time to contemplate exactly where it is we want to go from here. Hopefully, we won't make the same mistakes twice, and, in that way, some good may come out of the carnage after all.

We all know how we got into this mess. Greed and debt led to asset value growth that was unsustainable. The piper is calling in a major way.

He'll have plenty of listeners, mainly those now unemployed. Job losses are growing by the minute with some speculating that unemployment rates will grow to 10% or more before this recession is finished.

Certainly, the craziness in the mortgage market with its Wall Street accomplice had much to do with our troubles today. But then again, so did weakness in our education system. Shortcomings there have as much to do with job losses to overseas competition as anything else.

Most winners in play-money investing games end up wishing they'd invested real dollars. Not in this year's Stock Market Game for students in grades four through 12, run by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Well, except for that team that shorted Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) in late September; they managed to more than double their fake money.

The lessons learned may be exactly the opposite of those the Securities Industry board had hoped.

The kids started the game shortly after school began this fall, so most students have experienced a steep slide in their faux portfolios. One student had it worse: he played the game last year and decided to try it out this year with real money, saving his birthday and Christmas money to buy into a mutual fund. Now he's afraid to open his statements (his fund is down 44.9% this year).

Michael Ashworth, a 13-year-old Delaware middle schooler interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, had been getting excited about investing and had asked his mother for stocks for Christmas. After the market downturn? "I told her not to do it. I asked for a parakeet instead," he said.

Perhaps the rest of us would do well to follow the lead of Mr. Ashworth. If not a parakeet, perhaps a flock of chickens?

Bloomberg columnist Caroline Baum gently reminds us that not every tax cut achieves its intended effect.

Case study: The 2001 Bush Administration federal income tax cut, which included a cut in the marginal tax rate to 35% from 39.6%. The Bush Administration touted it as a tax cut that would increase incentives to invest, save and work.

The result? The tax cut didn't work: saving and investment have been "anemic" during the Bush years, Baum said, citing data provided by Paul Kasriel, chief economist at Northern Trust Corp. in Chicago. Business investment is down, the savings rate is at a post-World War II low. Further, the labor participation rate has declined.

No guarantee tax cut would be invested in U.S.

But why didn't cutting the top marginal rate do all of the good things the Bush Administration touted? Economist Peter Dawson said the reason is the tax cut's inherent flaw.

"The tax cut contained the mistaken belief that rich taxpayers would invest their money and invest in the right way, in the U.S., to increase GDP," Dawson said. "There was no guarantee that they would do that. Someone who is rich could invest the money in Brazil or India, with little benefit for the United States."

American high school students know little about the basics of finance and economics, and the problem is getting worse, according to a report from the AP today.

The majority of high school seniors answered basic questions about finance incorrectly in a nationwide poll conducted by the Federal Reserve. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke called for better financial education, and linked the woeful state of basic economic knowledge to the housing crisis.

Bernanke said, "In light of the problems that have arisen in the subprime mortgage market, we are reminded of how critically important it is for individuals to become financially literate at an early age so that they are better prepared to make decisions and navigate an increasingly complex financial marketplace."

It's hard to disagree with him on this point, but a cynic might wonder if a poorly educated population is really the source of the housing crisis. Sure, Americans don't know much about the power of compound interest or how to calculate net present value, but that's not why the economy is in trouble. The housing bubble was produced by people who knew what they were doing -- mortgage brokers who winked at "liar's loans" and sophisticated bankers who created new financial instruments to get rid of the bad debt. All of these people were highly educated in economics and finance. The problem isn't ignorance but a lack of integrity and regulation.

There is never a shortage of jobs. Some people have two or three jobs. The classified adds have thousands of jobs all the time -- always. If someone is unemployed there is a reason and it is definitely not a lack of jobs.

Sometimes it is a regional lack of jobs, General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor (NYSE: F) in the rust belt states of Michigan and Ohio have downsized, but foreign manufacturers Toyota (NYSE: TM) and Nissan Motors (NASDAQ:NSANY) in the Southeast have up sized. This does not help the states where jobs are leaving, and indeed causes other massive problems like weakening the tax base and pushing housing and other elements of the local economy down. However, from a national unemployment standpoint that does not count.

In our discussions of unemployment and the economic picture we attempt to understand the government figures and attribute some meaning. We know the government is prone to put things in their best light (lie) sometimes and there is discussion about what a true measure would be, but does that really matter? It is more important that whatever criteria is used remain constant so that we can use the data for comparisons, not that it be altered often as people become concerned about the exactness of the figures.

It might be time we need to account for a new set of metrics. What are the costs of retraining? How could these costs be distributed without expanding government -- not something I would support. We know that some people are not employable or are only marginally employable because they simply do not have the capability to do many jobs. I have numerous jobs, although generally speaking, I have created them myself over time. Clearly education and training are a factor, along with over all aptitude.

With a name like that, you know The Aristotle Corporation (NASDAQ: ARTL) must be involved in education. It is. Aristotle Corporation makes a vast array of educational materials and supplies for K-12. The company also makes various health care and medical teaching materials and supplies, as well as food industry items. The problem is that Aristotle Corporation is dependent upon state departments of education for much of its sales. Those budgets are not expanding. Thus, the company saw moderate net sales increases 5% in 4Q2007 and 4.2% in FY2007, but EPS decreased slightly in both periods.

Aristotle Corporation is in the process of revamping its higher-margin proprietary educational products in order to improve gross margins in 2008. The company managed to reduce its long-term debt by $42 million and does not forecast any significant capital expenditures in 2008. The stock is currently trading at under $10 per share, and pays a semi-annual dividend of $0.33 per share. Aristotle Corporation offers high-quality educational products, but needs to broaden its customer base beyond fixed-budget, slow contract approving school districts.

What's the new president - - Republican or Democrat -- likely to face after taking the oath of office in 2009?

Daunting fiscal problems -- and right at a time when Congress may have to consider more fiscal stimulus to jump-start the U.S. economy, one economist observed.

The biggest problem, economist Glen Langan said, will be the federal government's budget deficit. The United States is on-track to record a $200 billion deficit in Fiscal 2009 and a $241 billion in Fiscal 2010 -- and that's if the U.S. economy doesn't fall into a recession, Langan said, citing Congressional Budget Office data.

"The baseline CBO projections present a large budgetary task for the new president, but by itself it's not an impossible one, absent a major recession. The problem is there's no money available to tackle any other problems, including ones a Democratic president would address -- health care, energy policy, education and infrastructure. And don't forget the Iraq War, anti-terrorism efforts, and potential mortgage assistance programs," Langan said. "If there aren't changes to the tax code, given the current revenue structure and tax rates,to say the next president's hands are tied regarding new programs, would be an understatement."

Earlier this month, I wrote about concerns that the credit crunch might create problems for for-profit educational providers like Apollo Group (NASDAQ: APOL) and ITT Educational Services (NYSE: ESI).

The concern is that student loans will be tougher to come by and demand for these companies' services will fall. In addition, a tighter economy and tough job prospects might make would-be students less willing to pony up.

Now, the New York Times is reporting on a wave of insider sales at Apollo combined with the company's decision to bring its share buybacks to a standstill. With numerous questions surrounding the future of the industry, investors may be looking to insider trading for reassurance. But they don't seem to finding it.

Apollo has long held a reputation for being something of a corporate governance pigsty -- a jury recently found the company liable in a $277 million shareholder class-action lawsuit. Insider sales and a relatively high valuation combined with serious questions about the company's prospects make this a stock I wouldn't dream of owning.

We've all read about how expensive college educations can be. Hopefully, you're stashing away your hard-earned bread to be able to send Timmy to Princeton. Don't worry if you can't -- endowments and scholarships are picking up the slack.

But, for those on the upwardly-mobile track and thinking of sending your kids to an elite high school, get ready for some sticker shock.

The NYTimes.com reports today about growing tuition rates and endowments at some of the nation's leading prep schools.

While schools such as Exeter charge almost $40,000 for tuition, room, and board according to the article, that's just a fraction of the average of $63,500 annually Exeter fronts to house and educate each of its 1,000 students.

So, what's an aspiring family without the requisite resources to do?

It's been said before that excellent tools and access to them can actually lead to less intelligent students and practitioners of any craft. From the high school student to the accountant, is this premise correct? After all, the abacus and the pocket calculator changed the face of math. Could Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) change the face of critical thinking in its users?

According to a study out of University College London, so much quality access to instant information could be responsible for hampering the ability of many to become quality thinkers. It's a rather interesting premise: Google, known for employing more smart people than any other public company, is contributing to the dumbing down of its customers.

Are those born after 1990 really jeopardizing their critical thinking skills by searching for any and all information on anything using Google? The study mentioned the lack of critical and analytical skills among young people, students, professors, lecturers, and "practitioners" as they all have grown accustomed to "searching horizontally rather than vertically." This is in reference, I think, to those that read headlines but don't drill down into the real content.

Wow -- instant gratification comes to the web. Surprised? You shouldn't be. The web's instant reach to so much has really pushed the concept of on-demand access to new heights. The study also indicated that those in the 12-to-15 age bracket did indeed understand what intellectual property meant -- but that copyright protection procedures were unfair.

With the Virginia Tech massacre last year, universities certainly understand the extreme importance of security. As a result, notification systems – which can deal with things like cell phones, SMS, email and so on – are top-of-mind for chief information officers in universities.

The leading provider of notification services for educational institutions is NTI Group. This week NTI Group agreed to sell itself to Blackboard (NASDAQ: BBBB), a leading provider of learning management systems for universities. The deal amounts to about $182 million (there is also an earnout for $17 million).

With Blackboard's large customer base, there should be a large cross-selling opportunity. Besides, it will help the company's mobile efforts (after all, students are big-time users of cell phones and PDAs).

According to a report from the Yankee Group, the notification and alert market is expected to reach about $1.2 billion by 2011 (which translates into a 30% annual growth rate). Although, in the case of NTI, the company's growth rate is more than 50% per annum (the revenues last year were about $30 million).

Interestingly enough, NTI has a strong presence in the K12 market. This should be a nice boost for Blackboard, which is targeting this category.

In other words, this deal looks like a great fit -- and could help continue the nice growth ramp for Blackboard.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Anya Kamenetz has written an excellent series dedicated to answering the question: "Is college worth the cost?": Read part 1 and part 2, which delves into the issue of graduate school.

Kamenetz gives a great overview of the issues and parrots the oft-cited statistic that people with bachelor's degrees still earn an average of about $1.2 million more than high school graduates over a 40-year career.

Here's the problem. Think about the college graduates you know and compare them to the non-college graduates. On average, is the fact that one has a diploma and the other doesn't the biggest difference? I would argue that college graduates are, on average, smarter, more ambitious, and more focused than their peers. That has nothing to do with the fact that they went to college.

My husband and I don't yet have children, don't know if we want any, but I am sure of one thing: college funds for these hypothetical offspring need to be opened immediately.

The College Board said this week that the yearly cost of in-state tuition for a four-year public college jumped 6.6% from the 2006-2007 school year hitting $6,185. This follows a 5.7% increase last year from the 2005-2006 period. Private universities saw the annual tally for tuition and fees rise 5.5% to $16,640. The most affordable education can still be found at public two-year institutions, where costs rose just 4.2% from last year to $2,351 per year.

And that's just tuition and various fees. For students who live on campus (40% at public schools; 64% at private), the cost of room and board jumped 5.9% at public schools to $13,589. To live, eat, and learn on a private-school campus, it will cost $32,307 per year, also a 5.9% increase from last year.

The idea that parents should pay for their children's college education is widely seen as conventional wisdom -- after all, isn't that what those 529 plans are for? And Upromise, the program where buying groceries helps you put money away for your children's future?

I was a believer too until I read Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth's book Yes You Can Get a Financial Life! There, the authors argue that a college education is a capital asset and that it makes the most sense for the beneficiary of that asset to foot the bill. Stein and DeMuth believe that kids who pay for college may value it more, and that student loans and work-study programs are available to make it possible for kids to go to college without parental support.

And as they wrote, "If Mom and Dad really believe they are doing something noble by depriving themselves so their kids can stay out all night drinking in Nassau during spring vacation, that has little do with rational thought."

But do Americans really want to do that?