People, who didn’t understand, and who were fearful, or overwhelmed or careless, or stupid, allowed themselves to be talked into pie in the sky loans, with no money down, that provided an immediate home equity lines of credit, leaving the owners (unbeknownst to them) with no asset valuation in the house, and then got shocked when they couldn’t refinance as they were originally led to believe.

Now Congress, and a number of states, are looking into saving our heavily devalued pension plans by propping up the investment banks (one of which I work for) so these firms don’t collapse and send our economy to hell. How do they plan on propping up investment banks, Well, several state senators across the country have proposed some interesting taxes on the general population in order to ensure banks don’t go belly up.

I guess you and I will be paying for this for decades to come!

If you are 21-years of age, do you run up to friends at a party and show them your new iPhone or do you tell them you just saved and bought two shares of Apple? I think for two many folks, having something tangible betas having/owning the company.

If only youngsters [and I am 27, but I am old] could get it in their thick skulls, that if they simply saved a a couple thousand a year from 18-22 when it is damn near impossible to save anything, they would already have a solid financial base to begin their working careers. In addition to saving, NOT blowing through excess student loans and credit cards is a big step too..Sometimes coming out of college with knowledge and student loans withOUT $7500 in credit card debt is a HUUUUUGE step.

Also, your center column looks really messed up in IE7.

I am also wondering if people in some jobs are more likely to spend higher percentage of their income: e.g. math/computer science/engineering majors being more careful with money on the average than the rest. Where you work can make a difference too: someone working with rich customers may need to dress the part, whereas a software engineer working in R&D where everyone wears who he or she pleases would spend less on clothes. In a place where I work, if you come to work in a suit, you are bound to have several co-workers ask you as a joke “do you have an interview?” or “are you going somewhere after work?”. One reason I never buy suits or even suit jackets anymore. I like to dress up, but I don’t need to spend a fortune to look nice. Besides, even if I were to spend a fortune, I’d have no place to wear it.

Interestingly, even though the majority of people who work in my building probably make over $100,000 a year, I don’t see too many expensive cars either. Predominantly I see Hondas and Toyotas, some relatively new, some used. I am not sure if it is because we are all nerds or because we have a large percentage of people from other countries – India, China, both Western and Eastern Europe.

By the way, I love Suze Orman show. The “Can I afford it” segment is very entertaining. Especially when you see someone making a lot of money yet with disproportionally little in savings. You just want to ask the guy – “what do you do with all this money”. Of course then it turns out he wants to spend all of his savings for a used Ferrari for over 100K…

I agree with all of the reasons above but even with good upbringing, good influence from friends, and everything else, if the person who is spending the money decides to be bad with money, then no amount of help can really help them. Being smart with money starts from the spender.