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The study was reported by Steven Levitt in his book Freakonomics. It focused on how contestants on The Weakest Link treated each other. No racial or sex based discrimination was detected, but informational discrimination against hispanics and taste based discrimination against the old was...

There have been recent studies in discrimination The largest and most ubiquitous was that against the old. It is both common and accepted. People will use anecdotes and stereotypes to maintain and reinforce it even though false. The truth is people don't like old people and don't want to...

I'm up to 4.1% I had a significant cushion because I was trying to delay tapping my IRA early. That is looking less possible to avoid. This economy is scary with the 10 year S&P already the worst ever. I didn't expect to see another depression but everything is unfolding like one.

It already is a repeat PEs have been shrinking all this decade. About the only question is whether it turns around by 2010 or takes longer.

The Germans invented SS At 72% they wouldn't have to save for retirement. Luxemberg does 100%. That is a bit too much for me since I would rather have the upside of equities. Perhaps it's my German background but I rarely shop more than once a week and normally carry a sizable inventory...

My tracking method is a number of envelopes listing expense categories that I tuck all receipts into as I get them. For the rare item that does not have a receipt, I make up one. Once a year I total everything up for an Excel spreadsheet. I spend about 6 hours a year balancing everything...

What have your expenses been? My expenses were around 25% of my final salary and have hardly changed at all. Now if I actually had to cut back that could be painful, but the only thing I had to trim were my expectations.

We are in recession along with the rest of the developed world But there is little evidence consumer sentiment affects consumer behavior. At best it seems more reactive, which is also what I would make of the media. Oil country is still doing well even with prices off. Little else is...

Working in a cyclical changing industry, many times Increasingly so later in my career. During industry meltdowns (2), company liquidations (2), and recessions (2). Once I took a contracting job after not finding anything for 6 months. The last time I would no longer accept contract work and...

Also in SoCal, relative to expenses Taxes 26% Mortgage 0% Savings 0% Food 14% Util 7% Else 46%

Socal so utilities aren't that much $481 a month for a 1550 sf ranch

Not so sure about the public though I am sure most were happy to see prices rise, I think many felt things were getting out of hand. Of course conservatives always look for someone else to blame for their failings; irresponsibility is a way of life for them. Now financial innovations like...

Google is lightweight Yahoo has so much more extensive information whether historical data, advanced charting, or analysis. It's portfolio has had associated news for years. Google isn't much more than quotes.

Looking at the historical data, there have been times when higher withdrawal rates were justified and these were when the market was very cheap, often after a decade of poor performance. The problem is these episodes are rather rare and most of the time the market has been more or less fairly...

Buying is a long term investment Rents rise over time, so if renting and owning are equivalent, owning is the superior long term option, but rents are normally less than owning where ever real appreciation can be expected, so the question is whether homes are temporarily cheap or no real growth...

I daresay those spending $150k a year are more concerned with spending their principal than sustaining it. Too much money and not enough time.

Besides longevity it may pay to take some time to convert IRAs from Traditional to Roth before starting it for tax reasons. Have to look at the tax situation then since nothing is certain but change.

CitricAcid: Nice summary of the trickle down theory And I would buy it if we were at the opposite end of pendulum, but we're not. Real incomes of the P0-99 percentile have largely stagnated since the late 60s, bouncing up or down with the economy but not really growing. On the other hand...

Opposing arguments Practical arguments 1) Can’t get blood from a turnip Don't bite that hand that feeds you Unless you also snap the neck? 2) Got to go where the money is The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long and engulfs the one that burns slowly. 3) Some gov’t spending...

Life expectancy at 66 is about 86. I expect to reach 90 but not a lot longer. I did a poll here on life expectancy but it appears it is not correlated with early retirement and wealth. This makes some sense as the strongest factor in longevity is genetics, but one sees a fairly wide range of...

That would be true by definition since 60% is greater than 40%; that is what a quintile means.

Generally the total of all taxes are fairly flat with income while the income tax is mildly progressive, but one can consider SS and Medicare as benefits as well as taxes yielding a mildly progressive tax scheme. Most people are not middle class. The middle class is only the tail end of an...

Rates might have been higher than they otherwise would be but China is adding 1T a year in savings and the Gulf states much as well and these would have greatly overwhelmed any piddly SS effect.

What will be a problem in 2017 is Medicare. If nothing is done it will end up in general funding then. Now if healthcare is reformed, this may be delayed or go away, but if it takes a crisis to do anything, that will be when it occurs.

The money has already been borrowed. Now rolling it over to new borrowers may affect rates, but fairly small in itself. The US debt ratio is only 66%. The amounts in any year are only reach 100-200 billion or less than 1% of future gdp. This alone won't even require an increase in real debt...