The statistics tell me that having an undergraduate degree in economics increases my chances of becoming part of the wealthiest 1%. I always knew that graduating in economics would be my ticket to the big bucks. There is just one conundrum that I’ve never solved. If having an economics degree will make me wealthy, why couldn’t I find a job in economics after graduating college?

Most children go to college thinking that they are going into a no-lose situation. Impressive government statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reinforce the belief that at the end of the commencement stage awaits a career earning $20,000 more than a high school graduate. That’s just not how real life works.

Any decision in life carries with it a plethora of risks. When taking out a mortgage, you are betting that your income won’t decrease in the next 30 years and that home values will increase. When you invest in a retirement account, you risk losing all of your investments in a massive stock market crash the day after you clean out your desk. For college students borrowing for their degree, they are actually betting on two things. The first is that they can find a job after college and the second is that the job they find will be more than enough to cover their loan costs.

Why the Risks are Different for College Students

Before going off to college, someone is going to hold two numbers under your nose and it is going to convince you to go to college. One statistic will be the 22.9% unemployment rate of recent high school graduates and the other will be the 8.9% unemployment rate for college graduates. What are you to think? Something along the lines of “I best go to college, otherwise I’ll be unemployed.”

Empirically, your odds of employment are better with a college diploma, but did you ever think that you could be part of the 8.9% unemployed? Just because the odds of being unemployed dropped, those odds did not drop to zero. In terms of odds, one in eleven college graduates will be unemployed; are you satisfied that those odds are low enough for you?

Also, did you stop to think about the difference between what your life would be like as an unemployed high school graduate versus an unemployed college graduate? Would anyone choose unemployment with no debts over unemployment with unforgivable student loans?

My Economics Degree is a Gamble

If I were to pick a degree strictly on how wealthy it could make me, I’d have to say you can do little better than an economics degree. According to academic studies, 8.2% of those with an economics degree make it to the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans. One in twenty of the wealthiest 1% has an economics degree. This makes economists the largest represented degree holder among the rich.

The catch? Georgetown shows that economists don’t just have one of the highest starting salaries. They also have one of the highest rates of unemployment for new graduates standing at 9.4%. That’s compared to an average unemployment rate of 8.9% for new graduates. For perspective, Music majors have lower unemployment at 9.2%. (I’m not making a dig at music majors, they know going into their degree that there is rampant unemployment within their graduation ranks.)

For economics majors, there are large incomes to be earned, but you may also be waiting in the unemployment line.

A Second Degree Reduces Your Risks

If you are concerned about the one in eleven odds for getting a degree and subsequently having no income to pay back student loans, then you are thinking of ways to reduce your risks. That’s why I have some options for you. I’ll explain why a second bachelor’s degree is the way to go.

One way is to be a nurse. This is the “go where it’s promising” method. Instead of getting my economics degree, I go for nursing where unemployment is only 4%. Sure, I may hate nursing and might be a lousy nurse (increasing my chances of falling into the 4% unemployment). However on average, I did lower my odds of unemployment at graduation.

You could get a graduate degree or the “I’m smarter than bachelor graduates” method. Getting a master’s degree would lower my unemployment prospects to 4.6%. Not as good as nursing, but at least I’m doing what I like. The problem with this option is the other risk I mentioned at the beginning. I need to take out more loans to stay in school. This increases the odds that I will find a job, but I might not make enough to pay off the debt. Or worse, I could be part of the one in twenty who is unemployed and has even larger amounts of student debt.

Two bachelor’s degrees, at least from a numbers perspective, is the best option. One of the benefits is that four-year schools often structure their tuition costs so that students can obtain a second degree with little to no extra cost. Also, thanks to the rules of probability, you can lower your chances of unemployment. Let’s say that in addition to economics, I also obtain an accounting degree. Graduating accountants have an unemployment rate of 6.8%. Using probability, the odds that I fall into unemployment in both fields are about 1 out of 156.

I should note that a graduate degree is the best ticket to being wealthy; but if you are trying to avoid unemployment, two bachelor’s degrees is the way to go.

Shaun is the author of the blog Smart Family Finance, a site dedicated to exploring the challenges of family finance; from starting a marriage to starting a family, from teaching your children about finance to helping them pick a college, from single income to multiple income. The intricate world of family finance unlocked, one post at a time.