The Power of Credit Cards, 76% of Americans Cutting Back , Health Costs of the Economic Downturn, More Jobs for High School Drop-outs Than College Kids
Financial FYI: Interesting Financial News, Statistics, & Research
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Power of Credit Cards
In one experiment, researchers at MIT had people submit sealed bids for a pair of Boston Celtics tickets. Half of the participants were told they could pay with a credit card, half were told it was cash only. The average bid for people expecting to charge the tickets was twice as high as for cold, hard dollars. Scientists have also found that when people feel blue, for instance, they tend to both over-shop and overpay, by as much as 300 percent compared to when they are not depressed. Source: Newsweek.com. Read Full Story.
76% of Americans Cut Back On Holiday Spending
According to Consumer Reports, 76% of Americans plan to cut back on spending this season, particularly on gifts and travel. Source: Kiplinger.com. Read Full Story.
Health Costs of Economic Downturn
About one in five midlife and older adults have had their health negatively affected by the current economic downturn, and about one in six are not confident about being able to afford medical care next year, according to this October 2008 survey of adults age 45 and older. Source: AARP.com. Read Full Story.
More Jobs For High School Drop-outs Than College Kids
In November the number of people with a higher degree who were out of work rose to 1.413 million from 1.411 million in the previous month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Comparatively, there were 1.282 million unemployed high school dropouts, up slightly from 1.273 million in October. Source: money.cnn.com. Read Full Story.
Book Mark Us Today
College Money that doesn’t lead to a degree, the real cost of the financial crisis, and the Chrysler bail-out revisited
Financial FYI: Creating Financial Buzz Through Interesting Financial News, Statistics, and Research
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College Money That Doesn’t Lead To A Degree
About 70% of U.S. high school graduates now enroll in some kind of higher education, according to federal statistics, but only about half complete a degree, and among poor and minority students, it’s more like 20%. A stunning statistic from the foundation’s analysis: More than half the money spent on higher education in the U.S., which includes more than $100 billion a year on student aid, does not lead to any degree or credential. Source: Money.cnn.com. Read Full Story.
The Real Cost Of The Financial Crisis
The worst financial crisis in two generations has erased $23 trillion, or 38 percent, of the value of the world’s companies and brought down three of the biggest Wall Street firms. The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages. Source: Bloomberg.com. Read Full Story
The Chrysler Bail-out Revisited
The 1979 U.S. government bailout of Chrysler consisted of bond guarantees, adjusted for inflation, of $4.2 billion, according to a Heritage Foundation report. Source: Bloomberg.com. Read Full Story
NAKED RETIREMENT
Naked Retirement strips down the old traditional models of retirement planning and replaces the it with a more creative and intuitive one that helps people take control of their retirement planning, saving, and investing.
The book details the evolution of retirement and uses it to help baby boomers and retirees understand why they are behind in saving and what they can do about it.
"Retirement planning can no longer be one-dimensional, focused exclusively on merely providing information such as how pensions or a 401(k)’s work. It needs to extend beyond financial planning to include aspects of health and social issues that will impact future retirees," according to author, Robert Laura.
Billed as the ultimate defense against the scary, anxious, and stressful feelings people get on their first day of retirement when they have only a financial plan full of numbers and charts to guide them, Laura simplifies the mental and emotional aspects of retirement planning with thought-provoking questions about your definition and approach to retirement as well as important retirement conversations that foster strong relationships in retirement.
The book culminates into a one-page Naked Retirement plan that will help people as well as planners successfully estimate retirement preparedness and future success.
Book is available at NakedRetirement.com and is emailed in pdf format directly to participants.