Look what happened in my backyard Wednesday night.
I really hate the cold…and the wind…and winter. It snowed down the street and we’re supposed to have our first freeze of the season tonight. Did I mention that I live in the desert?
Enough whining. Here’s what I’m reading this week:
DQYDJ.net writes smart, well-researched articles like this one about generational wealth:
Volatility at the top is the name of the game. Every generation produces new wealth and new means to catapult people into the top 1%.
In the Treasury’s study, only 42.4% of the lowest quintile of incomes they tracked in 1996 remained in the lowest quintile in 2005.
Nelson at Financial Uproar wrote this spot-on post about weddings:
(A) wedding is a giant waste of money. At their best, weddings are a largely meaningless ceremony which creates a false expectation of marriage being a magical union of heavenly bliss for a lifetime. At their worst you get bridezillas and people who get pissed off because their presents aren’t good enough.
Weakanomics.com dispels the myths about income equality in this fascinating article:
Since 1967 the total number of households in the US has grown 95%, while the population has only grown 56%. How can that happen? When a household splits in half, you get two households. Say mom and dad get divorced and each make $30k a year. You go from having one household that makes $60k to two that make $30k. How does this get reflected in the data? It skews the low income numbers down. In the lowest quintile household, on average there are zero income earners. In the top, of course there are two. If more households had two income earners, you’d see less of the widening gap. A single income household is economically less efficient. The rise of divorce and single parent households has contributed to the perceived increase in income inequality for sure, but this isn’t the only thing out there.
GetRichSlowly.com reviews the traits, behaviors and beliefs that differentiate the rich from everyone else. The idea that you’re more likely to be rich if you take responsibility for your life and make smart choices doesn’t go over well with most people. You must read the comments.
- Rich people believe: “I create my life.” Poor people believe: “Life happens to me.”
- Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose.
- Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
- Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
- Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
GiveMeBackMyFiveBucks.com explores the disconnect between what 25-29-year-olds think they should earn by age 30 and what they will. Spoiler alert: The twenty-something respondents overestimated their earning potential by a factor of 3:
To the youth of today: you can truly do great things with your life and with your career – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But you have to want it more than your peers, and you have to want it more than those who already have it. Be hungry. Work hard, don’t take anything for granted, and create opportunities for yourself.
Paula at AffordAnything.com explores the entrepreneur mindset (or lack thereof) among journalists and their ilk. She met a journalism professor, and walked away shaking her head:
He’s insecure — that’s why he wants job security so badly. He doesn’t believe in himself. He wants other people — smarter, richer, and probably better-looking people — to create a job and bestow it upon him.
You disempower yourself when you believe that someone else must create your job.
Over at ControlYourCash.com, we continue our popular “Retard” series by exploring the Occupy Wall Street mindset. These folks won’t be mistaken for entrepreneurs or millionaires anytime soon:
We found a website where Occupy Wall Street protestors have chosen to write their laments. There are hundreds of them, but once you’ve read a few you can create the rest from a template. Which would read something like “I willingly took on tens of thousands of dollars in debt without calculating the estimated payoff. This is rich people’s fault, for some reason. And I probably have a child. Feel sorry for me.”
What did you do last weekend?
The live Nativity at the Tuacahn Amphitheater in Ivins, Utah. No pictures of the pageant since I had my hands full trying to keep the Travel Cat™ from visiting the fawning girls in the row ahead of us. Here’s a brief post from 2004 with a picture of the empty amphitheater.
Carnivals and Links:
It’s way better to receive right?
How to Make Money with Real Estate Blog Carnival: December 1, 2011 Edition
Top Personal Finance Posts of the Week: Awkward Christmas Card Edition
Product Placement:
Have you bought my book yet? It makes a great Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa gift. If you’re in Las Vegas, you can even get it autographed on Wednesday.
Not ready to commit to a 300-page read? Pick-up my latest eBook through Amazon Kindle*:
Which brings me to…
On my Kindle
The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World Of Geography Wonks
Ken Jennings
Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN
James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales
Sue Grafton
Curl up under a warm blanket and read one of these tonight.
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