Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCF who wrote (17107)	3/20/2002 4:10:14 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

Just curious... what are you watching, aggregate numbers or actually median, or somehow average people... ie. stats unaffected by massive increase at the high end??? I've done a lot of work directly with people asking me to help them sort out their financial situation and I happen to have family, friends and clients across a very wide range of incomes and net worth levels. I've always been interested in money and helping people resolve money issues, so I've been privy to a variety of different financial circumstances. I know people whose family income is less than 10k/a year and net worth close to zero while also knowing people whose net worth is in the hundreds of millions who have no active income. I can tell you both extremes are equally unrealistic in dealing with money, equally fearful. I've also been following aggregates, while well aware of the limitations of either taking the median or the average simply because, as you point out, it is distorted by the high end. If you spend enough time in the trenches helping people figure out whether or not they are getting ahead financially you get a good idea of where the general population is going. You can't listen to people, you have to dig through the pay stubs, charge receipts and account statements. It never ceases to amaze me of how poor people feel even as their assets grow exponentially. I think a lot of why people feel poorer even with all evidence to the contrary has a lot to do with debt. A long time ago before it was considered standard practice for people to put everything on the card a friend of mine explained it this way: If you save up money and have it in the bank (mattress, money market, whatever) then you can spend it in your head a zillion times before you spend it. And when you finally slap it down to buy something, you own that thing free and clear....and it is fun to spend money, after all buying something, acquiring something, is fun. OTOH if you charge it, you get the thing right away and then you spend the next month, year or decade paying the bill. Paying the bill lasts far longer than the fun of acquiring the object. Nobody, no matter how rich they are likes paying bills, its not fun.