Graduation Gifts That Pay for Themselves

With graduation gifts, it's the thought that counts. The cash is nice, too.

Spending on graduation gifts in the U.S. is expected to reach $5.6 billion this year, according to a new survey from the National Retail Federation. That tops last year's $5.4 billion and is the highest level in the 11 years of the NRF 's graduation spending survey, which covers high school and college. The biggest spenders are 45 to 54 years old, presumably parents, who expect to spend an average of $119.84. Their parents, those 65 and up, plan to spend an average of $112.34.

Cash is the most popular gift, given by 53 percent of the 7,335 consumers surveyed by Prosper Insights & Analytics for the NRF—though gifts of cash (so retro) are at their lowest point in the survey's history, down about 10 percent from the highs reached in 2007 and 2009. Greeting cards, with or without cash inside, are the next-most-popular gift, at 41 percent, followed by gift cards—cash in sheep's clothing. Plastic was chosen by a third of the gift-givers surveyed (and you know some people are going to Venmo their graduation gift).1495033587631 Gift cards were followed by apparel, at 16 percent, and electronics, at 11 percent.

All that plastic is a far cry from the gift that money manager Richard Bernstein, who heads his eponymous firm, got when he graduated: His parents gave him a suit to wear for his first job. It started him on a Wall Street career of more than 30 years. Gifts of real stuff aren't dead yet. Financial planner Douglas Boneparth, 32, of Bone Fide Wealth, got graduation gifts of a briefcase and an initialed leather passport cover to use on a planned trip overseas with his college roommate.