Talking Points: World, Savings, Homes
The world’s middle class now totals 3.7 billion people, or 48% of the world’s population. The Brookings Institution, July 11, 2018
The government has pushed up its estimate of the personal saving rate from 3.3% to 7.2%. That comes to $613.5 billion in additional savings, enough money to purchase more than 20 million Ford F-150 pickup trucks or 600 million iPhone Xs. The Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2018
There were 309,000 new homes on the market in July, the most since March 2009. Reuters, August 23, 2018
“Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.” Bill Vaughn
Americans paid a whopping $34.3 billion in overdraft fees in 2017- the most since 2009. If you were charged a $34 fee for being overdrawn by $24, and it took you three days to pay that overdrawn amount back – that’s the same as taking out a loan with a 17,000% annual percentage rate. Forbes, April 5, 2018
A recent study set out to determine what predicted the best outcome of surviving your first heart attack 12 month afterwards and based it on a single outcome: survival or death. The best predictor? The number and quality of friendships you had. Financial Times, August 9, 2018
“The difference between school and life? In school you are taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you are given a test that teaches you a lesson.” Tom Bodett
