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Food Stamps - Our Ticket to Prosperity? - "Never spend more than you earn" and "always try and save a little something."

Sure, we should never spend more than we earn. And we should always try to save a little something. But sometimes we need a helping hand from our friends and family to meet financial challenges. People want to help. Giving to someone in need takes some finesse. Only friends, family and neighbors who care, are compassionate

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Men Spend More and Save Less to Find a Mate

The perception that women are scarce leads men to become impulsive, save less, and increase borrowing. Research shows us that women have expectations of how men should spend their money when courting. Their expectations increase as the ratio of men to women goes down.
Some of our behaviors, including saving and spending, are much more reflexive and

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Unemployment Correlated With Happiness – Steven Kaplan: Implications for Education and Personal Growth

What are the financial predictors of happiness? We could look at metrics related to debt, spending, hours worked, percent of income saved, travel industry sales…so many to pick from.
Steven Kaplan, a professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, believes unemployment rates are better than income inequality in predicting

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Buy an Annuity and Delay Social Security – GAO

Retirees may have to delay Social Security benefits and buy an annuity to have enough money for retirement, said a U.S. government study.
“The risk that retirees will outlive their assets is a growing challenge,” according to a study from the Government Accountability Office scheduled for release today. Increased life expectancies and health-care costs coupled with

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Spend, Save and Invest - Our Moral Hazard

On October 18, 2007 , Harvey Rosenblum wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal titled “Fed Policy and Moral Hazard.” Mr. Rosenblum was aiming his thoughts toward the Federal Reserve and the “Bernanke put”, citing support for further fed easing in light of few signs of inflation.
Tucked inside his contribution to that day’s

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Rethinking Housing: The Meaning of Homeownership has Changed

The meaning of homeownership has changed.
Here is what it means to be sensible about buying a home:

You should save up at least a 20 percent down payment.
You should get a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.
You should spend no more than 30 percent of your gross income on housing.
If you have student loans or credit-card debt as well

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Tax Cuts for the Rich Increases The Taxes They Pay – The Wealthy Are Different

Why don’t we change the tax system and have a flat tax or a consumption tax?
Caroline Baum, Bloomberg News columnist, helps us to understand the government’s reluctance to simplify the tax structure.
Caroline Baum:
Why, after all this time and an extensive body of data, are we still questioning whether reductions in marginal and capital-gains tax rates

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How to Borrow and How to Lend - Lessons From The Interest-Only Mortgage

We learned some important lessons about consumer and borrower behavior from how interest-only mortgages were used during the housing boom which, now, seems so long ago.
Interest-only mortgages gave borrowers the ability to lower their monthly mortgage payment and save the difference. What the mortgage industry experienced was an outcome that was less noble. In fact,

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The New Abnormal: Consumer Psychology - Whether to Spend or Save

Last year, Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of PIMCO, the influential bond shop, declared a “new normal,” a global realignment in which the U.S. consumer, no longer a hungry monster, became cautious and subdued.
The current circumstances might be better described as the new abnormal, in which no one knows anything. In June the Conference Board Consumer Confidence

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If the U.S. Doesn't Start to Save, is Inflation Inevitable?

Richard Karlgaard, Forbes publisher, speaks out on inflation as an only viable option for the U.S. to address its debt problem – given the proclivity of Americans to spend and not save. Prosperity Concierge and others don’t believe in the inevitability of inflation. Still, we value Mr. Karlgaard’s opinion.
Mr Karlgaard:
The end of imported deflation plus

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