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Enhance Your Career By Consuming Alcohol (With a Giveaway!)

by Luke Landes

I linked to this article, but I wanted to focus on it when I had a chance. That chance is now. An article from Inc.com, a resource for entrepreneurs, says that drinking alcohol can help your career. Sounds too good to be true? Here’s how. Regular drinkers make 10 percent to 14 percent more money than those ... Continue reading this article…

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Can You Trust Your Financial Advisor? Or Anyone?

by Luke Landes

The truth is people are selfish. A person makes decisions on what actions to take based on what they believe will benefit him or her. Is there such a thing as true selflessness? Even when someone helps another individual “out of the kindness of his heart,” isn’t she really acting in order to get that ... Continue reading this article…

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Four Mental Mistakes in Investing

by Luke Landes

Jonathan Clements from the Wall Street Journal decided to don his psychologist hat and evaluate the muddled minds of investors. He discovered four mindsets that hinder people from investing intelligently. Let’s face it, amassing a decent-size nest egg isn’t exactly rocket science. All we have to do is save regularly, buy a few low-cost mutual ... Continue reading this article…

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Spending Philosophies: Five Tips for a Better Relationship

by Luke Landes

Money Magazine is profiling Michael and Brittany Abbate. Here is their situation. The couple used to have a total annual income of $135,000 to support them as well as their daughter, but thanks to a move from Chicago to Phoenix and a pregnancy, they now make less than half that amount. Due to the pay ... Continue reading this article…

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Women Don’t Do Enough (According to Report)

by Luke Landes

According to a biannual report by Prudential Financial, women are now more involved in financial decisions then they were five years ago, but their financial knowledge and money management confidence is relatively low. Two-thirds of the respondents gave themselves a grade of “C” or lower, while just 1 percent assigned themselves an “A.” These women have ... Continue reading this article…

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You Will Go To The Moon

by Luke Landes

Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time, says that humans should consider colonizing the moon, Mars, and eventually another star system, in order to ensure our species’ survival. Here on earth, our risk of being wiped out by a natural or man-made disaster is increasing. The scientist cites “sudden global warming, nuclear war, ... Continue reading this article…

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Most Families Manage Money Well?

by Luke Landes

I saw this interesting tidbit on Everybody Loves Your Money. According to Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, most American households are doing just fine managing their finances. Here is some of what he said: On average, debt burdens appear to be at manageable levels and delinquency rates on consumer loans and home ... Continue reading this article…

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Fidelity Study Says People Need Their Service

by Luke Landes

I love when companies conduct and publicize studies or surveys which do little more than rationalize their existence. Fidelity, a brokerage specializing in retirement, conducted on such a study recently. Here’s what they found: * 83 percent of workers feel they’re not saving enough for retirement, up from 78 percent a year ago. * Workers are saving ... Continue reading this article…

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The Worth Of The Job Of Mom: Faulty Study?

by Luke Landes

Earlier this month, Personal Finance Advice and others reported on a study by Salary.com saying that a stay-at-home mom’s job is equivalent to an amalgamation of many vocations that would together provide an annual salary of $134,121. Carl Bialik, the “Numbers Guy” at the Wall Street Journal calls foul. The Wall Street Journal likely emailed ... Continue reading this article…

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Financial Responsibility More Important Than Hot Sex

by Luke Landes

According to a survey of more than 1,000 adults, financial responsibility is more important to a lasting relationship than sexual compatibility. For both men and women, sex ranked last when compared to faithfulness (#1), honesty (#2), financial responsibility (#3), and sense of humor (#4). Financial troubles ranked even higher when people were asked what situations ... Continue reading this article…

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Financial Sharing Within Couples

by Luke Landes

Marshall Loeb sent his readers an early Valentine with his article about financial information that couples should share. By couples, he’s referring to those who are married or sharing ownership of financial accounts. Number One: “Married couples and those with joint investments or accounts should know the names, addresses and contact information of each other’s ... Continue reading this article…

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Bag-Lady Syndrome

by Luke Landes

Many of us fear that our financial security, or what we have of it, could disappear in a moment. Even wealthy people share this fear. It might not be unfounded. Jay MacDonald from Bankrate writes about bag-lady syndrome, a curious feeling plaguing women. Women tend to be unprepared and overwhelmed when widowhood or divorce suddenly ... Continue reading this article…

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Less Materialistic Holiday Season?

by Luke Landes

The Center for a New American Dream conducted a poll about materialism surrounding the holidays and found some interesting results: … [M]ore than 3 in 4 Americans (76 percent) say that kids are too materialistic, and the holiday season just makes things worse. Only 28 percent of those polled say that it is necessary to spend a ... Continue reading this article…

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Suze Orman’s Tips For 2006, Part 4

by Luke Landes

This is the final part in a short series about Suze Orman’s advice for 2006, which is not about 2006, specifically. Watch Your Identity. There’s good advice here. Don’t pay for credit monitoring services because you can do it for free. Everyone in the United States is entitled to one free credit report from each ... Continue reading this article…

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More Reading From The Blogs

by Luke Landes

Here are some noteworthy posts from other blogs that I’ve come across in the last week or so: * JLP from AllThingsFinancial intereviewed Lee Eisenberg in two parts. This is nice companion reading to my five-part review of Eisenberg’s soon-to-be-released book, The Number. * Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity is compiling a list of ... Continue reading this article…

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Abortion and Crime – Freakonomics Disputed

by Luke Landes

I have not yet read Freakonomics, but I have heard good things about the book from friends. Apparently one chapter within the book discusses the effect of correlation between the legalization of abortion in the 1970s on and the amount of crime in the 1990s. An article in the Wall Street Journal [free] explains the ... Continue reading this article…

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What Are You Afraid Of?

by Luke Landes

CNN Money has an extensive feature on how general consensus is wrong again. The articles look at the biggest money fears, how they may be unreasonable, and what should worry the public instead. Here are the first three from the series. The remaining three appear in a follow-up post here at Consuermsim Commentary. While Americans ... Continue reading this article…

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Money Clubs?

by Luke Landes

Marshall Loeb mentions the popularity of money clubs, akin to the investment clubs of the 1990s. Much like other sorts of support groups, money clubs offer the unique opportunity of belonging to a group of people with similar desires, who can encourage, inform and brow-beat you as needed. (This sounds very much like the community ... Continue reading this article…

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The Etiquette of Money Talk

by Luke Landes

Peggy Post, who has taken over the Etiquette legacy from the mannerific Emily Post, was interviewed by Bankrate.com. She tackled the problem of the appropriateness of talking about money; that is, when and how not to do it. Her tips were standard. People don’t like to talk about money because they feel they are being ... Continue reading this article…

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