How Rich are Americans, by Age Group?

How Rich are Americans, by Age Group?

In September 2017, the U.S. Federal Reserve issued a report based on the Survey of Consumer Finances. This survey was based on 6254 families, and the Federal Reserve report broke down the data by age group.

Note that this survey includes a house as part of a household's assets; page 14 of the report specifies "Declines in house prices in particular had a disproportionate effect on families in the middle of the net worth distribution, whose wealth portfolio is dominated by housing."

I've created a graph to illustrate this information, using LibreOffice Calc, a free and open alternative to Microsoft Excel. Here's the graph:

Here's a link to the Federal Reserve report

Is your retirement in jeopardy?

Due to severe budget problems, Puerto Rico will have to slash its budget, as announced in February 2017 (see http://www.businessinsider.com/the-board-has-spoken-puerto-rico-to-be-hit-with-painful-austerity-measures-2017-2). This includes cutting 10% from the retirement system for government employees, since that system is on the verge of running out of money completely. Sound familiar, U.S. residents?...

6 (+5 more) simple ways to save

If you have your own apartment (or house) and you're responsible for paying utilities, there are simple ways to cut waste and save $$$. Here, you'll find 6 that you may not have thought of:

A way to make (a little) ca$h on the side

Just ran across this article, which advances a new idea for making a little money: http://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money-venting-your-frustrations/#.  I didn't know this was even possible, but it holds a lot of promise! Just a thought for those of you with experiences to share.

But be aware that it will probably require good writing skills. So if your teachers have told you that you have trouble communicating an idea clearly and concisely, or if you hate English or writing composition classes with a burning passion, this may not be a good money-making method for you.

How to listen to the music you want, for free

I found the following web page thought-provoking:  http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/buying-vs-streaming-music.html

This is an interesting analysis, but is a false dichotomy (i.e. that you have to pay to stream vs. pay to buy a song). There are other options, as mentioned by a few people in the comments. For example, Pandora, Grooveshark, Spotify, and Last.fm are well-known free music streaming services. Lesser-known ones are listed on Lifehacker, along with strengths of each: http://lifehacker.com/the-best-streaming-music-services-you-arent-using-but-476372723

YouTube is also an overlooked option: it offers auto-playlists based on certain songs or bands that you like, or you can create your own playlists and add songs to them. You'll have to put up with ads on some of the videos, but it does allow customization and a high degree of user control--all for free!

Tips for college students

Despite what books, TV ads, financial planners, and others would have you believe, there is no big 'secret' to being financially successful. There are, of course, lots of tax loopholes, complicated investment methods, and other such tricks to making money.

Unless you are a CPA, tax lawyer, investment banker or otherwise want to be involved in studying the myriad financial laws of this country (and possibly others, as well), a simpler approach probably sounds good to you.