In this paper I analyze the case of a mother and her child, beneficiaries of the Universal Child Allowance, a conditional cash transfer that requires the minor's schooling. School dropouts and the sporadic entry of young people into the labor market trigger domestic disputes and short-term and long-term economic projections on what various authors have called human capital and money-capital, central notions in these transfers. As both beneficiaries interpret the educational requirement of the program as a necessary condition to achieve a better life, I conclude that the designers of public policy and their recipients coincide in characterizing an increasingly popular form of money from which future economic returns are expected, as if it were an investment.