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 …
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 …
A transformational leader can utter the words “I messed up” even once seated in the c-suite. Accepting responsiblity is challenging for most, but it is particularly so for those in leadership roles.  While working as an organizational consultant in graduate school, I saw this play out in a way that was less than ideal. My colleague and I had prepared a presentation for a prospective client: we included numbers, statistics, data – here’s how our product can impact …
Distrust and caution are the parents of security. – Benjamin Franklin Data Points measures skepticism in relationship to one’s overall Wealth Potential™: it is positively related to net worth regardless of age, income and percentage of wealth inherited. So, those who have the greatest potential for accumulating wealth are also those who will most likely question everything with respect to how they (or you) manage and invest money. In one of our latest studies, within a sample of …

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