Brain Bites – Issue 13

Brain Bites are “now and then” updates regarding trends, statistics, and interesting info-bites in personal economics. These tasty tidbits help maintain your edge over an unpredictable future. Think of them as cerebral snacks for the hungry mind!

All rise!

The national high school graduation rate hit an all-time high in 2013-2014, with 82% of students earning a diploma on time.
Ref: U.S. Department of Education

Here today, gone to Maui

Millennials tend to be extremely confident, ambitious, and tech-savvy—all valuable qualities highly sought after by most companies. While 40% of companies currently employ 50 or more Millennial workers, 60% leave in less than 3 years. 87% of companies report it costs between $15-25,000 to replace each Millennial employee they lose.
Ref: Grovo

Classical gas

Consumers spent an average of $2,400 of their after-tax income on gas In 2014. A year later, refilling the tank became almost one-third cheaper, a windfall of about $650.
Ref: JPMorgan Chase Institute

On the up and up

In 2012, about 20% of adults age 25 and older (42 million) had never been married, compared with about 10% of people that age in 1960. The median age for getting married is now 27 for women and 29 for men, up from 20 for women and 23 for men in 1960.
Ref: Pew Research Center

Is there a doctor (nurse) in the house?

A 2015 study found that the average nurse earns about 40% more, and the average doctor, about 50% more, than comparably educated and experienced people in other fields.
Ref: Health Affairs

The app trap

The average app loses 77% of its users within 3 days after it’s downloaded. We now spend more than 3-1/2 hours a day in apps, and 80% of that time is concentrated in our five favorites (which vary from person to person).
Ref: Tim Cook, Apple CEO

The bigger the wedding…

The shorter the marriage? The average cost of a wedding in the U.S. rose to $29,858 in 2014. Of those who spent $20,000 or more on their wedding, 46% were more likely than average to get divorced.
Ref: TheKnot.com / Emory University

Save it for a rainy day

The savings rate rose to 5.5% at the end of 2015, the highest in 3 years.
Ref: JPMorgan Chase Institute

Your bankruptcy pays their tennis fee

Despite low inflation and weak demand for legal services, rates at large corporate law firms have risen by 3% to 4% a year since the economic downturn. Billing rates at some of the nation’s top law firms have nudged past $1,500 per hour.
Ref: ABA Journal

No ticket for the tortoise

Police stopped a Google self-driving car for going too slow (24 mph in a 35 mph zone). The officer spoke with the person in the driver’s seat and no citation was issued (California law requires a person to be able to intervene when the technology is tested on public roads).
Ref: Associated Press

We beg to differ

In a 2014 survey, 78% of Millennials and 75% of Boomers said marriage is important to them personally. But the generations differ when it comes to children. 54% of Millennials said marriage isn’t necessary for having kids, compared to 34% of Boomers.
Ref: Harris Poll

Now, where did I put the keys?

Scientists claim that the human brain’s capacity to remember information is up to 10X larger than previously thought. Our memory capacity may now be enough to hold the information contained within 4.7 billion books.
Ref: Fidelity Investments

Hush money

In a 2013 survey, 43% of couples couldn’t answer the question “Do you know how much money your spouse makes?” Among the clueless, 10% were off by $25,000 or more.
Ref: Fidelity Investments

The write stuff

The rate at which college students write lecture notes: 22 words a minute. The rate at which college students type lecture notes: 33 words a minute. Despite laptop note takers having had more notes, researchers found that students who wrote them out in longhand appear to learn better, retain information longer, and more readily grasp new ideas.
Ref: Princeton University and University of California, Los Angeles

Diet, exercise, and moolah

While varying by region, overall the rich tend to be much healthier and live longer. Men with the top 1% of income lived 15 years longer than men with the lowest 1% of income; for women, that gap was 10 years.
Ref: Journal of the American Medical Association

There’s no place like home

In 2016 a massive data breach from a Panamanian law firm (the “Panama Papers”) revealed the murky world of shell companies and how prominent politicians, executives, and celebrities hide their wealth in tax havens. But you don’t have to go British Anguilla or the Isle of Man to stash your assets in secrecy—among the top 21 tax havens identified were Nevada and Wyoming.
Ref: Jason Zweig, The Intelligent Investor

The information in Brain Bites is sourced from a variety of usually reliable publications. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or currency of this material and a degree of common sense should be applied before quoting it. If something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is.

Image credit: “Jelly Brain Dissection” by Guerilla Science (2010), licensed/modified (red ring removed) by permission of copyright holder.