Control. Control. You must learn control. – Yoda, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Approximately 57% of Americans are financially literate, typically measured by answering simple financial literacy questions correctly. The work of Anna Maria Lusardi and her colleagues have demonstrated the woeful state of the world related to financial knowledge and education in the United States and around the world. Often, this group of researchers measures financial literacy with a few …
If part of your work involves educating others on how consumption can affect their ability to build and maintain wealth, looking for outside patterns of data and trends might be a way to bring an “ah-ha” moment to clients, children, friends, or family members. A string of articles in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal wove an interesting pattern for me, and the interpretation might prove educational for consumers and clients. First, this: Holiday Shoppers Were …
Race through your work, and loudly proclaim you are finished. Such is the pattern of some elementary school students (and adults, by the way). You’ll undoubtedly see this tonight: kids racing up to a door, quickly getting their reward (and hopefully saying thank you…or at the least, “trick or treat”), and then they are off to the next task, the next house. A wise teacher in one of my children’s classes is teaching that in …
Earlier this week the DataPoints team had the privilege of attending the XY Planning 2016 conference in San Diego, and presented its technology solution to the advisors there in the conference’s inaugural fintech competition. The XY Planning network is a group of fee-only financial advisors that are committed to serving as fiduciaries to their clients and have a special focus on serving those clients that may not fit with more traditional financial services. The …
Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s private banking group went through another layoff as it shifted its business strategy and increased its minimum investible assets from $5 million to $10 million. The rationale, as explained in the article, is that wealthy clients require much more attention, generate more fees, and have less risk than less lower income, middle class clients. The article continues: Wealthy clients also typically generate …