(MONEY Magazine) – A financial gift on graduation day is a chance to enlighten as well as to enrich. But which should you put in the envelope, the pomp of cash or the circumstance of shares in a target-date mutual fund?

GETS CHOMPED BY INFLATION + ENCOURAGES QUICK SPENDING + SPREADS ICKY GERMS = CASH

INTRODUCES NEWBIES TO INVESTING + DIVERSIFIES FROM THE GET-GO + TEACHES MARKET DISCIPLINE = TARGET-DATE MUTUAL FUND

BOTTOM LINE

Cash brings quick fun, but a target fund endures. See page 88.