Is It Better to Rent or Buy? The perennial question to decide between buying a home and renting is one of the biggest financial decisions that many of us make. Tara Bernard writes on The New York Times: “More American households are renting, across all income levels and generations, for different reasons. But when homeownership is the centerpiece of the American dream, most of us have internalized certain ideals: Buying a home builds equity, putting you on the fast track to building wealth. Renting, by contrast, is essentially throwing money to the wind.” But with renters now accounting for 37 percent of all households, renters can come out ahead if they’re disciplined enough to put the saving money from renting into investments. A HelloWallet study concluded that a hypothetical, moderate-income family will often end up with more net wealth if they rent versus own over the 10 years from 2013 to 2022. On the other hand, buying a home makes sense the longer you stay. After inflation home prices in the United States have risen just 0.37 percent annualized for the last 126 years. (nytimes.com)
Average Apartment Price in Manhattan Topped $2 Million
Most people around the world would retire comfortably with $2 million, but in Manhattan $2 million is just the average price of an apartment. Oshrat Carmiel writes on Bloomberg: “The average price of all Manhattan home purchases completed in the three months through March was $2.05 million, up 18 percent from a year earlier and the highest in data going back to 1989, according to a report Friday from Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The price per square foot of all co-ops and condos that changed hands in the period jumped 36 percent to $1,713 on average, also a record.” (bloomberg.com)
More People on Earth Now Obese Than Underweight for the First Time in History
According to a new study by the Lancet, obese people now outnumber the underweight population for perhaps the first time in global history. Majid Ezzati, an environmental health researcher at Imperial College London who led the study, found that over the 40-year-span, the proportion of obese men worldwide more than tripled, to roughly 11 percent, and the proportion of obese woman more than doubled, to about 15 percent. Researchers estimate 18 percent of men and 21 percent of women worldwide will be obese by 2025. It’s interesting to note that more than 25 percent of the world’s severely obese men and almost 20 percent of the world’s severely obese women are American. The impact of the obesity epidemic on developing nations is even more troubling. “In America, you can ameliorate your diet or blood sugar, or take cholesterol medicine, but in these developing countries, once things get bad, the mortality rates can’t be checked,” said Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist at the Harvard School of Public Health. (statnews.com)
Worst New Cars for 2016
Consumer Reports previously released their ranking for best cars of 2016. While it’s good to know which cars have excellent ratings, it’s also important to know which models are lowest rated in their categories to avoid buying. Here are the lowest-rated cars for 2016:
- Lowest-rated subcompact: Mitsubishi Mirage
- Lowest-rated compact: Fiat 500L
- Lowest-rated midsize sedan: Chrysler 200
- Lowest-Rated Compact Luxury Car: Mercedes-Benz CLA250
- Lowest-Rated Midsized Luxury Car: Lincoln MKS
- Lowest-Rated Family SUV: Dodge Journey
- Lowest-Rated Luxury Compact SUV: Land Rover Discovery Sport
- Lowest-Rated Large Luxury SUV: Cadillac Escalade
- Lowest-Rated Minivan: Chrysler Town & Country
To Keep Up With the Joneses, Affording a Good Social Life Means Not Having Kids
A study published by the Royal Society found that for many affording a good social life means not having kids. Keeping up with the Joneses has become more expensive as modern couples spend more to compete in real-life social ladder, which could explain why they’re having fewer kids. “The areas were we see the greatest declines in fertility are areas with modern labor markets that have intense competition for jobs and an overwhelming diversity of consumer goods available to signal well-being and social status,” says Paul Hooper, an anthropologist at Emory University and senior author of the study. “Our model shows that as competition becomes more focused on social climbing, as opposed to just putting food on the table, people invest more in material goods and achieving social status, and that affects how many children they have. The human species is highly social and, as a result, we appear to have an ingrained desire for social standing,” Hooper says. (thefiscaltimes.com)
How to Live to 100
Worldwide, the average life expectancy at birth was 71.0 years (68.5 years for males and 73.5 years for females) according to United Nations World Population Prospects. Do you want to live to 100? We can learn some tips on living to 100 from Sardinianans, who have the the highest rate of centenarians in the world. Here are some habits on how to live to 100 from cultures with long lifespans:
- Incorporate walking into your daily routine
- Eat beans every day
- Drink antioxidant red wine
Why 44% of Workers Can’t Sleep at Night
According to a survey by Harris Poll, fully 44% of American workers say they have lost sleep because they were worrying about work. “Numerous studies show that job stress is far and away the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades,” according to The American Institute of Stress. Employee stress-related cases jump 28% over three years. Sleep difficulties can make it more difficult to manage stress, says psychotherapist Holly Parker, who lectures at Harvard on psychology topics. “It’s a troubling snowball of stress and sleep deprivation, fueling itself.” It’s no wonder that retirement is the secret to a happier and healthier life. (marketwatch.com)
Retirement is the Secret to a Happier and Healthier Life
According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, retirement is the secret to a happier and healthier life. The authors of the paper said that “life satisfaction improves immediately upon retirement and these effects are long-lasting.” It is conclusive that retiring is better than working and the positive changes don’t fade over time. Retirement planning is an important step in life to achieve a happier and healthier life. (marketwatch.com)
Another Lottery Winner Files for Bankruptcy in Florida
The Orlando Sentinel reports another lottery winner filed for bankruptcy after winning a $1 million lottery jackpot. A Seminole County jury ordered the former school teacher Lynn Anne Poirier to pay her boyfriend $291,000. Poirier took a one-time lump sum $750,000 payment and claimed that there wasn’t an agreement to split the jackpot but a six-member jury concluded that “the two had a valid but unwritten contract to split any major lottery jackpot.” Past studies have shown that lottery winners often become estranged from family and friends. According to a 2015 Camelot Group study, 44% of lottery winners were broke within five years. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards also found that nearly a third declared bankruptcy and were worse off than before they won the lottery. (orlandosentinel.com)
After Earning $400,000 Per Year on His Blog, Mr Money Mustache’s Spending Rises to $256,000
Mr. Money Mustache prided himself of living happily and responsively without expensive lifestyle. During this April Fool occasion, he made a joke with his readers that with an abundance of money his family spending rises to $256,000.
“Remember how all this time I’ve been telling you that life is better if you aren’t focused on the pursuit of luxury? Yeah, well that turned out to be bullshit, ” Mr. Money Mustache joked. “I stumbled into a goldmine by starting this website. It has become a truly once-in-a-hundred-lifetimes situation, with over 18 million people stopping by so far and hundreds crawling around at any given moment. With this level of traffic, even the minimal level of advertising you see at the bottom is enough to make freight trains of cash. Enough money every month, for a family to live extremely well on for a year.”
Indeed, Peter Adeney, aka. Mr. Money Mustache, earns as much as $400,000 a year on his blog. He plans to donate the money away some day. (mrmoneymustache.com)
How the Fed Cost $8 Billion for Savers
“The past 10 years have been very good for investors, but not so much for savers,” said Jeff Cox at CNBC. While the S&P 500 has surged more than 60 percent with the help of the Fed’s ultra-low interest rates, people putting away their money in savings accounts have lost $7.7 billion. “Bank are just not in a position where they need to pay up to bring in more deposits,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. With Fed chief Janet Yellen saying global uncertainty justifies slower path of rate increases, it will be a long time before savers see any significant rewards. (cnbc.com)
10,000 French Millionaires Left the Country
According to the report Millionaire migration in 2015, France lost 10,000 millionaires or 3% of its millionaire population amid rising Muslim tensions. They’re leaving for the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. After France, China ranked second on the list of countries ranked by millionaire outflows. As for inflows, Australia was the favourite destination in 2015 and the US was ranked second. San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver all experienced large millionaire inflows from China and South East Asia. (ibtimes.co.uk)
Bad Influence: $900 to $55K in 12 days from Millennial Day Trader
MarketWatch reported on millennials looking to get rich or die tryin’ with riskiest oil plays. In one case, “World Chaos” as known on Reddit’s WallStreetBets multiplied on his betting money playing against the S&P 500. Jeffrey Rozanski, 18-year-old Florida high schooler, proudly bragged: “Y-O-F**KING-LO, 900 to 55K in 12 days!” The latest obsession for these millennials on WallStreetBets is an exchange-traded UWTI betting on oil with extremely volatile that uses derivatives and debt to amplify the profits and losses. Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli is a role model for the members and at one point was one of the moderators on WallStreetBets.
Day trading is a dangerous game to play for these 38,000 members with “YOLO” spirit (short for “You Only Live Once”). “This subreddit, they love Martin Shkreli,” said Asad Butt, a 25-year-old Pennsylvania trader who posts frequently to WallStreetBets. “He is living their dream. He got rich. He might have lied and cheated along the way, but on the forum that’s encouraged.”
Millennial Day Trader Podcast
You can listen to MarketWatch’s take on these Millennial Day trader below. The podcast covers how Reddit transformed into a gathering place for young millennial day traders.
More Insight from Millennial
If you got spare time, you can watch this talk from Jeffrey Rozanski explaining how to turn passion into profit after overcoming dyslexia and depression. Jeffrey is a graduate of Pine Crest School (class of 2016) and will be studying business and finance at Hofstra University. The discussion is hosted by TEDx Talk.
Fast Life of Millennial Trader in Wall Street
Wall Street Millennial traders are living fast and hard in an unsustainable world. These young Millennial traders take meth and illegal drugs to boost their attention for the intense trading. Many of young Wall Streetes also compulsively pay for sex to deal with stress and demand of their careers. “In an effort to cope with job stress and self-imposed pressure, these Type A’s are working murderous hours while relying on prescription medication and—primarily among the men—street drugs, such as cocaine and crystal meth, to help them focus and reach peak job performance,” reported by ThinkAdvisor. It’s very hard to get out of these bad influences in the name of greed.
Conclusion
In general, day trading is a bad idea. By definition, day trading requires frequent buying and selling of securities and financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, and options. By holding for a short period of time like hours or days, day trading is more like gambling in contrast with long-term investment with holding period over many years or even decades. Success at day trading needs good forecast by market timing doesn’t work. Invest for the long run is still the preferred method over day trading.
The Unexpected Upside of Student Loan Debt
Hadley Malcolm writes on USA Today that the unexpected upside of student loan debt is the financial responsibility as she learns to set goals and to track budget. “The unexpected upside of graduating with $25,000 in student loan debt is the financial responsibility it forces on your life. I have to take control of every dollar I spend and know exactly where it’s going. I have to say no to dinners out with friends, Friday night drinks and other general fun a lot more often than I can say yes. I stare perplexed at the photos from exotic vacations and Euro trips so many of my Facebook friends seem to take every year — or as is so much more common once you pass age 25, the flood of shiny, diamond-clad fingers waving through my newsfeed — wondering how exactly these people have that kind of extra cash.” Taking control over your money is a crucial part of getting out of debts. Gaining an awareness of your personal finance while paying off the student loans will benefit the rest of your life. (usatoday.com)
Some Medical Students Avoiding Huge School Debts by Studying in Cuba
Medical students in U.S. faced an average of $180,000 in debt after graduation. By 2025, the Association of American Medical Colleges projects that the U.S. will have a shortage of 130,600 physicians. More than half of the shortgage will be in primary care as more medical students choosing subspecialites for higher pays. Due to higher economic barrier, some students are ditching America for medical school in Cuba. The Latin American Medical School is free for students with no tuition, room, or board. Over 100 American students have joined this medical school route and and Sarpoma Sefa-Boakye is one of them. “I called the office asking how much the program cost, how much the application fee was. They were just like ‘free, free,’” says Sefa-Boakye. “It boggles my mind they make it so expensive and so hard to be a doctor” in U.S. says Darnna Banks, who recently graduated in Cuba and matched to a pediatrics residency program in Chicago. (wired.com)
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