Salient to Investors: Pew Charitable Trusts said: 82% of American Gen Xers – those born between 1965 and 1980 – with at least a bachelor’s degree earn more than their parents did, yet only 30% have greater wealth. 70% of Xers without a college education earn more than their parents
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Calpers’ exit from hedge fund investing underscored that there is no magic bullet to dealing with mounting pension fund costs. Chris Mier at Loop Capital Markets said the problem cannot be fixed very rapidly. Wilshire Consulting said that in 2013, state pension plans had 75% of what they
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Amateur investors are giving up on trying to beat the market, while even the most sophisticated investors are rejecting strategies that require advanced math and managers with million-dollar salaries. ICI reports the average expense ratio on an equity mutual fund is down 25% in 10 years. Boston Consulting
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: More than half of US adults are single versus 37% in 1976. Singles need bigger emergency funds more insurance protection. Couples who wait to have kids in their 30s end up with three big financial burdens all at once: retirement planning, saving for a house and saving for college.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jaison R Abel and Richard Deitz at FRB of New York said: The value of an average US university degree has been near all-time high for more than a decade but may be only because wages of high school graduates have been falling. It takes the average student at least
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Richard Arum at NYU and Josipa Roksa of University of Virginia found: Students who did as little as possible during college continued to drift after graduation. Many college students took easy courses, regarded themselves as privileged customers, socialized heavily, and came away with little to show for
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: Defeating ISIS would require a large and sustained strategic effort from the US but without significant numbers of US ground troops. ISIS videos of executions are designed to sow terror in the minds of opponents who when facing ISIS fighters now reportedly flee rather
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports the share of Americans 65 and older with mortgage debt rose to 30% in 2011 with a median debt adjusted for inflation of $79,000, from 22% in 2001 with a median debt of $43,400. The increase in mortgage debt makes these households more susceptible
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: TransUnion said as much as 20% of home equity lines of credit are at increased risk of default as they switch from interest-only to include principal, causing monthly payments to rise more than 50%. Ezra Becker at TransUnion said more than half of the outstanding HELOCs have
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Matthew Ledvina at Anaford said Fatca and the Swiss bank disclosure program has intensified the search for US nationals beyond all measure. The US is the only OECD country that taxes its citizens abroad. Almost 9,000 Americans living overseas have surrendered their passports over the past 5
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