43 Things About Money That You Probably Don’t Know
One of the more recurring things that seems to come up when I talk to people about how they can maintain their income, bills, investments, retirement and over all wealth is: self education. There is nothing more powerful or fundamental than learning on your own about what the proper way to managing cash. While there are some that would prefer to have someone teach them directly, the end results is education. I just learn best when I figure things out for myself from the very beginning. I was also the kid who read the 1989 World Book Encyclopedia beginning to end; but I promise I am not OCD.
A more current reason I am such an advocate for (self disciplined) financial education is due to the fact that 2009 is going to be nasty. As in not pretty. The economy feels like its fluttering around zero and might be stabilizing over all but its reactionary to flaky news. So you think you know all the ins and outs? What about your own general feelings with respect to currency? Here are few things from around the web you probably had no idea about:
- More of our fantasies are about money… than sex.
- If we could have any luxury in the world (and money didn’t matter) more of us would choose to spend money on a butler and a maid than anything else.
- 90% of Americans who own pets buy them Christmas gifts.
- Money is the leading cause of disagreements in marriages (after lack of communication).
- 65% of Americans would live on a deserted island all by themselves for an entire year for $1,000,000.
- For $10,000,000 most of us would do almost ANYTHING! Including abandoning our family and friends and our church. A very high percentage of us would, for that same amount of money, change our race or sex. And, 1 in every 14, would even murder someone for ten million bucks.
- What’s really strange about this is, the statistics remain the same whether it’s ten million dollars all the way down to three million. For three million bucks, most of us would do the same horrible things we would do for ten million. But, guess what? Few of us would do these things for a “measly” two million.
- 92% of us would rather be rich than find the love of our lives.
- Here’s a weighty one: Money (or the lack thereof) is the biggest stress inducer in the lives of Americans. We worry more about money than our marriages, our health, or even who’s going to win the Superbowl Game or come out on top in the latest Survivor TV show.
- If you get your money out of a Hitachi ATM machine in Japan, it will be laundered. The way they do it is, they briefly press the bills between rollers at high enough temperatures to kill most bacteria.
- Women have very fixed ideas on how much they are willing to spend on a bra. 38.3% of women won’t spend $30 for a bra. 28.4% won’t spend $50. 10% would pay as much as $75. And, only 3.5% would shell out $100. But, you know what? Almost 20% of women say they would pay almost anything for a bra. This is because they consider (and I guess so do a few men) that the contents of what those bras are encasing is of extremely high-value.
- Nearly half of the people who sell their houses with furniture included will take all the light bulbs out of all the lamps when they vacate the premises.
- Most people won’t bend over to pick up money lying on the sidewalk unless it’s at least a dollar.
- Most Americans think pennies are a pain in the ass and the U.S. Mint should stop making them.
- Authorities say counterfeiting poses no major threat to the economy. Of the $620 billion in U.S. currency circulated worldwide, only a fraction of 1 percent is counterfeit. Authorities said that only one bill in every 10,000 is a phony. Nationwide, financial institutions and businesses turned up $43 million in counterfeit money in fiscal 2002, down from $47.5 million the previous year.
- Do people care if their bills are crisp? Indeed, they do. Fresh, crisp, clean bills are considered much more valuable than those which are old, wrinkled and dirty.
- I once sent a ‘dollar bill thank you’ letter to a guy who sent a sincere letter back to me bitching the free $1 bill I sent him was wrinkled instead of crisp as I had described in the letter.
- Let’s flip a coin and try to guess whether it will come up heads or tails. Three times as many people guess ‘heads‘ than ‘tails‘.
- Here’s one I personally think really sucks: One out of every four Americans believe their best chance of getting rich is by playing the lottery (Not really safe for work and very mean link).
- How about this one for a shocking fact: 5% of lottery ticket buyers buy 51% of all tickets sold. (Trust me, none of these people belong to the “Einsteins of America Society”.)
- A staggering 74% of us are influenced by how much we can win in a lottery as opposed to the odds of us winning.
- That’s a good thing for the Government because the odds of winning a lottery jackpot are about 10 million to 1.
- A person who drives 10 miles to buy a lottery ticket is 3 times more likely to be killed in a car accident while driving to buy the ticket… than… he is to win the jackpot.
- Sunday newspaper coupon inserts are the second-most read section of the paper, after the front page.
- Few people know it but, you can buy single-disease insurance. Beware.
- Only 6% of people in America regularly buy clothes tailor made just for them.
- Here’s one that’s really important: 63% of us decide NOT to buy a product advertised on the Internet… because… we think the shipping and handling charges add too much to the order.
- Eight times as many Americans would rather use an ATM than deal with a real live teller.
- This one’s going to blow your mind: 83% of Americans still pay with checks instead of credit cards!
- Almost 30% of us say we would need 3 million smackaroos to feel rich. This ties in with the fact most of us would do anything for as little as $3 million… but… not nearly as many of us would do those identical things for a measly $2 million.
- Here’s another fact which is really, really important: 80% of Americans say giving personal information (especially their credit card information) over the Internet scares the living shit out of them.
- Two-thirds of Americans say they wouldn’t let their spouse spend the night and have sex with another person for a million dollars. Many of these people are liars. There’s a big difference being asked if they would do it for a million dollars… as opposed to… handing them a paper sack containing the million fungolas and simply saying, “Here, you can have this if you’ll let me sleep with your sweetie tonight.”
- The average wedding in America costs a staggering $20,000.
- More than one-third of American women consider money more important than good sex to the success of a marriage.
- According to Employee Benefits Research Institute 96% of all people who have jobs right now won’t be eligible for their full Social Security benefits when they reach age 65.
- When it comes to houses, more than anything else, people want a state-of-the-art kitchen.
- When people shop for a car, what they want more than anything else is reliability for the best possible price.
- One of the best ways to raise money for a charity is to have a free dinner for a lot of people and have an empty envelope tucked under their plate… for the express purpose… of making whatever size donation they want.
- People tip more on sunny days than they do on dreary days.
- More than 80,000,000 people call the I.R.S. Information Hotline phone number every year. One-third of those calls go unanswered. And, according to the Treasury Department itself, 47% of the answers the ‘get-through’ callers receive are incorrect.
- Almost two out of three people have modified their financial behavior because of their fears.
- Almost three times as many people who live in the South worry about losing their jobs as compared to people who live in the Midwest.
- Which would you rather do: Shop till you drop… or… have great sex? For men, this is a no-brainer.
However, more women would actually rather have an unlimited shopping spree than spend a weekend with a fabulous lover. In fact, the #1 favorite fantasy of women is to have a blank check to shop at their favorite store.
What are some facts you know of that should be on this list? Can we make it 100 things?
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I have no memory of being taught anything about money management in school. Nothing about what happens when you save at an early age, or invest, and use the compounding interest to get rich. If your parents didn’t know, or didn’t tell you, you could easily believe the lottery was the way to get rich. Money was to spend and pay bills. Nearly everyone thought of credit as extra money, not a high interest loan. We all lived beyond our means. During my first job interview, I realized I didn’t even know what an average adult makes as a salary.We need to do better than this.