Guest Author - Sharon Michaels
Here are some practical and fascinating facts about the world of finance and money. These twenty facts are not only interesting but will also provide you with valuable information about money, finances and wealth.
1. Two-thirds of minimum wage earners are women.
2. Of the elderly living in poverty, three out of four are women.
3. With 69 million women in the workforce, 10 million of them are the sole breadwinners of their families.
4. In the very near future you’ll have your own personal smart card with an embedded microchip. These smart cards will be similar to gift cards and store cash values. The microchip in the smart cards will enable your personal computer to download funds from your bank accounts directly to your card.
5. Experts estimate you’ll need seventy to eighty percent of your pre-retirement income to maintain your current standard of living during retirement.
6. In 1970 a new house cost twice the annual salary of a married couple even with only one person working. Today, a new house costs eight times the annual salary with couples both working.
7. On average, women spend 11.5 years of their working-age years outside of the workforce. That is significant because it means less social security benefits and retirement savings are available during a woman's retirement years.
8. In the 15th century items like jars and pots were made with an orange clay called “pygg.” People would drop spare coins into the clay pygg jars. Over the centuries these jars became know as piggy banks.
9. Generally, women who have financial goals are more focused and determined to succeed.
10. At age 14, multibillionaire Warren Buffet bought forty acres of Nebraska farmland with money he made on his paper route and rented out the land.
11. It is estimated that currently only 5 percent of Americans can afford to retire at age sixty-five.
12. Studies have found that couples argue over money more than anything else.
13. In 1950 Frank McNamara introduced a cardboard card with his signature on it to pay his dinning bill and it later became known as the Diners Club card. Some even say it was the birth of the modern credit card.
14. An estimated 157 Americans, out of an adult population of almost 200 million, have at least one credit card.
15. A study by the Federal Reserve found that the majority of U.S. households have no credit card debt. About a quarter have no credit cards and an additional 30 percent of households pay off their balances every month.
16. J.K. Rowling, the former single mother who lived on welfare, is now the only billionaire author in the world.
17. There were about 600,000 more millionaires in world in 2007 than there were in 2006.
18. Out of an average one hundred people who reach retirement age, only one will be wealthy.
19. An estimated 10 percent of holiday gift cards go unused or expire.
20. Wealth, as defined by R. Buckminster Fuller, is the number of days you can survive without working for money while still maintaining your same standard of living.
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Ready to conquer self-sabotage? You’ll want to read Sharon’s book, How To Give Yourself The POWER To Succeed –
How To Give Yourself The POWER To Succeed
Please take a few minutes to visit my website www.SharonMichaels.com for more empowering suggestions, tools and tips and to sign up for my "Unlimited Success" free monthly newsletter and tele-conferences.
