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E-PrinceThe University endowment earned a 5.6 percent return for the 2007-08 fiscal year and grew from $15.8 billion to $16.4 billion net of spending, Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) President Andrew Golden said in an interview with ...(back to the article)
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There's something wrong with the numbers in this article. If the University's endowment earned a 5.6% return for the 2007-08 fiscal year, but grew from $15.8 billion to $16.4 billion net of spending, then spending must have been 1.8% instead of 4.6% as claimed. ($15.8 x (1 + (.056 - 0.18)) = $16.4). At least one of the following must be true: Earnings were actually higher than 5.6%, spending was actually lower than 4.6%, or the endowment at the end of the year was actually lower than $16.4 billion.
Andrew Golden lives and breathes investment returns and endowment values, so it's unlikely that he stated those numbers incorrectly. Either something got lost in translation or the University's actual spending was much lower than 4.6%. I'd like to know the real story.
There would also be growth from new giving into the endowment. We're in the middle of a campaign, so that growth would be relatively high. Don't know if that's enough to account for the differences in the figures.