Take two children from seemingly similar advantaged, affluent backgrounds – perhaps parents with similarly prestigious jobs, the same type of family structure, high SAT scores, same GPAs, even the same interests and career plans. Why, in the future, would one end up with a significantly higher income than the other? It may be self-concept, or more specifically, core self-evaluations (CSEs): a set of psychological characteristics that include a belief in one’s worth and one’s …
A recent post by our friends at the Motley Fool refers to story told by America’s most famous investor, Warren Buffett, where he explains that if someone had invested just $40 in Coca-Cola stock when it went public in 1919, it would now be worth more than $5 million. The Fool Team updated the math and concluded that factoring in recent performance and events, the 2014 total value of that $40 investment would be …
Beginning in 1995 and then more broadly in 2000, the Social Security Administration (SSA) began mailing hard copy statements of estimated benefits to workers (the “Statements”; see the the SSA website). Included in the Statements were available disability insurance (DI) benefits and estimated monthly benefits at certain retirement ages, along with other information. The SSA stopped sending the Statements in 2011 for budget reasons but restarted the program in 2014. How did the Statements affect …
Will you be teaching children or students what it takes to build wealth this year? What will you teach them or encourage them to do? Think back to your time growing up. You probably can point to an event or a set of experiences that greatly influenced how you manage finances today. Recollections such as these were discussed extensively in the The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind. Successful, financially independent Americans recounted childhood or early work …