These are from a recent article in the Journal of Financial Planning (May 2018) – and they are not snoozers! In fact, several truly surprised me. Check ’em out. And I did not make them up – these are all from formal surveys.

Credit cards

75 – Percentage of Americans who have at least one big financial regret. (Bankrate)

70 – Percentage of survey respondents who said they regret spending on restaurants. (Common Cents Lab)

62 – Percentage of Gen-Xers surveyed who said they waste too much money eating out. (Hloom)

51 – Percentage of clients who fired their adviser because they said he or she failed to understand their goals and objectives. (Financial Adviser)

1,175 – Number of points the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped in early February 2018, the largest percentage decline in six and a half years. (Forbes)

4.6 – Percentage loss that the 1,175-point drop in the DJIA translated into. (USA Today)

22.6 – Percentage one-day drop in the Dow on Black Monday, October 19, 1987. (USA Today)

50 – Percentage of the cause for investor shortfall for equity and fixed income investors that is due to psychological factors. (Dalbar)

  • This means that psychological factors (like fear, rushing to buy/sell, or allowing media to influence decisions) are responsible for 50% of investor shortfall. “Investor shortfall” is the difference between the return on an investment (from Time A to Time B) and the return that an investor actually receives for trying to “outsmart” the timing of buying/selling an investment (the latter is typically far less).

19.4 – Percentage the S&P rallied in 2017 [note, without dividends] in 2017. It is projected that the stock market gains in 2018 could be smaller. (IBD)

19 – Times the S&P 500 has returned more than 15 percent since 1962. (IBD)

~3 – Percentage higher [annual] performance in the portfolios of people who receive financial advice compared to those who do not receive financial advice. (Vanguard)

  • Translates into several – or more – years earlier that the investor who received advice can retire or retire at all.

25 – Percentage chance you have of living past age 90 if you retire at age 65. (Forbes)

83 – Percentage of retirees who want to stay in their own homes as they age. (Forbes)

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, Godmothers and mother figures out there.

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