On 2006-04-30, Steve Lamb penned: > Monique Y. Mudama wrote: > >> I honestly don't believe this. It might be different if good >> financial practices were required in the high school curriculum, >> but they're not. (That's an idea I've read about in a couple of >> financial books now, and it makes a lot of sense.) Very few people >> are all that good at investing. Particularly, because there's a >> lack of understanding of the market, people panic when they lose >> money, pull their money out, and then never get the benefit of the >> upswing. > > But that's just it, they don't have to because Social Security > is that bad. It's not like they have to make out like a > railroad bandit to beat Social Security. All they have to do is > the most basic savings to beat it. Seriously!
Right, but if they don't understand the market, it's likely they'll not just fail to succeed, they'll lose. A lot. I've mentioned this before, but the idea of a required course in finance (not my idea, just one I've read) appeals to me greatly and would make this a more viable solution. >> Everything I've read suggests that financial experts, people who have >> a financial education and study the market as their job, are lucky to >> pick a winning stock 50% of the time. What makes you think that >> someone with a full time job, child rearing responsibilities, etc is >> going to even do that well? (And yes, you can invest in funds >> instead, but that still requires a fair amount of attention to earn >> enough interest to stay ahead of inflation.) > > Who said stocks? I said invest as they saw fit. And you're > right, it takes a fair amount of attention to earn enough interest > to stay ahead of inflation. Now, for the $20,000 that you and > others never ask. Is Social Security staying ahead of inflation? Hold up, hold up! Let's not get confused. I'm anti-social security, I'm just not necessarily anti-safety net. I strongly suspect (the only reason I don't say I'm absolutely positive is because I haven't looked into it) that SS doesn't keep up with inflation. You're right, though, that stocks wasn't necessarily a reasonable generalization, and it kind of occured to me when I was typing that, but I posted it anyway (bad Mo'!). -- monique Help us help you: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
