Earners Feel More Secure Due To Their Confidence To Control and Preserve It.

PNC Wealth Management conducted the survey of people with more than $500,000 of investable assets. The Wealth and Values Survey showed that 69% of “wealthy” Americans accumulated most of their money through work, business ownership or investments; 6% percent received money through inheritance; and 25% gained wealth through a combination of inheritance and earnings.

A couple of things separate the earners from the inheritors: First, earners were in control of making their money, and therefore feel more confident about preserving it or making even more. Second, earners likely took large risks to achieve wealth. As we all know, as risk increases, so does return. Accordingly, earners are likely more comfortable with the concept of risk.

Driving the point of risk tolerance home, the report says earners also have a higher risk tolerance than heirs: 39% of earners rate themselves as moderate to risky investors compared with 21% of heirs. Those who inherited their wealth often view themselves as stewards for future generations. As a result, they tend to be more conservative in their approach to investing.

Other Intersting Finds:

•  Heirs are more than twice as likely to say “Having a lot of money brings about more problems than it solves.”

• More people who have earned their wealth (37%) agree with the statement: “The money I have made so far has come from being in the right place at the right time.“

• Far more of earners agree with the statement: “Every generation should be responsible for creating its own wealth” along with “It is more important for children to learn the value of money through hard work.”

Not a bad idea, adults!

Older Americans Are The Happiest

Americans grow happier as they grow older. The study also found that baby boomers are not as content as other generations, African Americans are less happy than whites, men are less happy than women, happiness can rise and fall between eras, and that, with age the differences narrow. The happiness measure is a guide to how well society is meeting people’s needs.

Charted happiness across age and racial groups, Yang Yang, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, found that among 18-year-olds, white women are the happiest, with a 33% probability of being very happy, followed by white men (28%), black women (18%) and black men (15%).

Differences vanish over time, however, as happiness increases. With age comes positive psychosocial traits, such as self-integration and self-esteem; these signs of maturity could contribute to a better sense of overall well-being. Second, group differences in happiness decrease with age due to the equalization of resources that contribute to happiness, such as access to health care, Medicare and Medicaid, and the loss of social support due to the deaths of spouses and friends.

Looking over the study’s 33-year period, she noticed definite upticks when the nation flourished economically. For example, she found that 1995 was a very good year on the happiness scale.

The Right Pressures or Incentive Will Cause Anybody To Lie

Here are some stats and tips on how to tell if someone is lying to your face:

• Skilled liars don’t break a sweat, but the rest of us get a little fidgety. Four possible giveaways: shifty eyes, higher vocal pitch, perspiration and heavier breathing. Of course, not everyone who doesn’t meet your gaze is a liar. Certain behavioral traits, like averting eye contact, could be cultural and not indicative of a liar

• Another clue: imprecise pronouns. To psychologically distance themselves from a lie, people often pepper their tales with second- and third-person pronouns like “you,” “we” and “they.” So when we lie, we pause longer and speak slower than normal and often experience speech disturbances that serve as gap fillers, such as “um,” “er” and “ah.”

• Upward inflections: We upwardly inflect our words when asking a question. You may have noticed that some salespeople will upwardly inflect certain statements of fact. This is a red flag that should alert you to potential deception.

• Liars are also more likely to ask that questions be repeated and begin responses with phrases like, “to tell you the truth,” and “to be perfectly honest.“

• Touching the nose: We have erectile tissues in our noses, which engorge with blood when we lie. This causes a tingling or itching sensation that requires a nose touch to satisfy.

• Neck rub: We rub our necks because of the stress we experience when we feel that an obstacle may be insurmountable.

• Eye rub: An eye rub is an indicator of disbelief.

• Women are more likely to lie to make other people feel good, while men tend to lie to make themselves look better.

Study Shows Average Age of Management Positions Now 25 Years Old

Generation Y people born after 1981 tend to climb to managerial posts in companies at a relatively much younger age than their older counterparts. Employees born after 1980 tend to first become managers at an average age of 25.3, compared to 31.8 for their counterparts who were born in the 50s. The Y-generation people seem to climb the career ladder faster as they tend to have stronger ability to learn and a stronger work ethic, according to the poll.

Most of the business executives said they do not particularly consider employees’ ages when they are choosing new leaders within their corporations. They choose according to negotiation and coordination ability. The ability to solve problems and professional abilities are more important factors when they are considering promotions.

Interestingly enough, the Y-generation people do not necessarily perform well in management terms. According to company executives, managers aged 39-48 were the best performers.

 Equitable is unlikely to mean the same on every dimension

Women seeking a lifelong mate might do well to choose the guy a notch below them in the looks category. New research reveals couples in which the wife is better looking than her husband are more positive and supportive than other match-ups. The reason, researchers suspect, is that men place great value on beauty, whereas women are more interested in having a supportive husband.

Researchers admit that looks are subjective, but studies show there are some universal standards, including large eyes, “baby face” features, symmetric faces, so-called average faces, and specific waist-hip ratios in men versus women.

Past research has shown that individuals with comparable stunning looks are attracted to each other and once they hook up they report greater relationship satisfaction. These studies, however, are mainly based on new couples, showing that absolute beauty is important in the earliest stages of couple-hood, said lead researcher James McNulty of the University of Tennessee. Overall, wives and husbands behaved more positively when the woman was better looking. Men are very sensitive to women’s attractiveness. Women seem to be sensitive to men’s height and salary.

In couples with more attractive husbands, both partners were less supportive of one another. Men who are more attractive than their partners would theoretically have access to partners who are more attractive than their current spouses. The “grass could be greener” mentality could make these men less satisfied and less committed to maintain the marriage.

Are people having four or five children just because they can? Because they feel that it shows their wealth and status?

Raising kids today costs a fortune. Last month, the Department of Agriculture estimated that each American child costs an average of $204,060 to house, clothe, educate and entertain until the age of 18. What’s worse, the desire to have another child opens one up to charges of elitism and status consciousness. In many major U.S. cities and their suburbs having three or more children has now come to seem like an ostentatious display of good fortune. The family of five has become “deluxe.”

We not only wonder, we marvel, we get jealous, we gawk. “Having three kids in the city is a way of showing off, absolutely,” says Elisabeth Egan, who, like many families she knows, moved out of New York to the suburbs of Montclair, N.J., to manage the feat. “A third child in the city is definitely a luxury good.”

A February analysis of Current Population Survey data by the Council on Contemporary Families found that in the past 10 years, the top-earning 1.3% of the population has seen an uptick in families with three or more children. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 12% of upper-income women had three children or more in 2002, compared with only 3% in 1995.

For a couple’s every conceivable wish or worry, the parenting industry knows the precise formula of guilt, fear, hope, love and desire that will empty the parental wallet. Rather than fret about spending too much money, most parents these days are consumed by the anxiety of underspending on their children.

So parents quickly adjust to the demanding realities of the child-rearing industry. Today’s American children, by contrast, get an average of 70 new toys a year.  Baby showers have replaced bridal showers as the blowout du jour; American women today have an average of three. The accompanying baby registries have mushroomed into a $240 million business. In upscale urban areas and tony suburban enclaves, where luxury families are flourishing, that can translate to $800 a week for child care alone. So-called high-end nannies (those who hail from licensed agencies and come equipped with working papers and even driver’s licenses) can cost more than $50,000 a year on the books.

Most families simply can’t afford all this. And surely it can’t all be necessary.

Criminals Have It Too Good In America

Lawmakers from California to Kentucky are trying to save money with a drastic and potentially dangerous budget-cutting proposal: releasing tens of thousands of convicts from prison, including drug addicts, thieves and even violent criminals. Officials acknowledge that the idea carries risks, but they say they have no choice because of huge budget gaps brought on by the slumping economy.

At least eight states are considering freeing inmates or sending some convicts to rehabilitation programs instead of prison.   If adopted, the early release programs could save an estimated $450 million in California and Kentucky alone. A Rhode Island proposal would allow inmates to deduct up to 12 days from their sentence for every month they follow rules and work in prison. Even some violent offenders would be eligible but not those serving life sentences.

In California, where lawmakers have taken steps to cut a $16 billion budget deficit in half by summer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed saving $400 million by releasing more than 22,000 inmates who had less than 20 months remaining on their sentences. Violent and sex offenders would not be eligible.

So where exactly are the savings extracted from? Laying off prison guards and making it more difficult to send parole violators back to state prison would account for part of the savings. To curb spending, lawmakers have offered a bill to make about 7,000 drug offenders in prison eligible for parole. A second proposal would allow the parole board to release inmates convicted of selling marijuana and prescription drugs after serving just a quarter of their sentences. Currently, they must serve 85% of their terms before release.

Law enforcement officials and Republican lawmakers immediately criticized Schwarzenegger’s proposal, which would apply to car thieves, forgers, drunken drivers and some drug dealers. Some would never serve prison time because the standard sentence for those crimes is 20 months or less.

Gov. Steve Beshear has said Kentucky must review its policies after the state’s inmate population jumped 12% last year — the largest increase in the nation. Kentucky spends more than $18,600 to house one inmate for a year, or roughly $51 a day. In California, each inmate costs an average of $46,104 to incarcerate. I now favor death sentence for the extreme crimes. These are cheaper.

To some, Larry Ellison’s $200 million reproduction 16th-century Japanese emperor’s estate in the hills above Silicon Valley sums up everything wrong with America’s out-of-control real estate market. Imagine how upset Ellison’s critics became this week when they found out that the the world’s 14th-wealthiest person had negotiated a 60% tax break on his property. As a result, his local assessor’s office is sending the 63-year old $3 million.

Ellison won the tax break by essentially arguing that he had squandered money on Larryland, and would never be able to get his investment back. Ellison said that the property had suffered from “significant functional obsolescence” and was therefore worth $64.7 million, not the $166.3 million on record (substantially less than the $200 million it cost to build).

Larry’s 23-acre Japanese emperor estate property ended up featuring a 2.3-acre man-made lake filled with drinkable water, 2,000 tons of imported Chinese granite, a waterfall with a built-in fog machine and an on/off switch, several miles of underground tunnels for domestic staff, a 30-ton boulder in the master bedroom shower, and a replica 16th-century bridge that was built by craftsmen in China.

As our economy worsens, middle-aged Americans move in with their parents.

Taking shelter with parents isn’t uncommon for young people in their 20s, especially when the job market is poor. But now the slumping economy and the credit crunch are forcing some children to do so later in life — even in middle age. Financial planners report receiving many calls from parents seeking advice about taking in their grown children after divorces and layoffs.

Parents “jeopardize their financial freedom by continuing to subsidize their children,” says one financial planner. “We have a hard time saying no as a culture to our children, and they keep asking for more.” Plenty of well-meaning parents must delay retirement or scale back their dreams because they have to help their children.

A new survey by retiree-advocacy group American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that one-fourth of Generation Xers, those 28 to 39 years old, receive financial help from family and friends.

People draw opinions about who we are and how we operate based on what our space looks like, sounds like and even smells like

Take a look around your desk. What do you see? A chipped mug with the congealed remnants of yesterday’s latte, a mountain of unopened mail, a pen holder so overstuffed that it can’t accommodate the pens you use? If so, enjoy your stay — because you are probably going to occupy cubicle hell for the long term.

Regardless, your current cube decor and office style speaks volumes about your personality — and your colleagues and bosses are taking note. “It sounds cliché but the more research I’ve done, the more I’ve come to believe that what’s going on outside the mind reflects what’s going on inside the mind,” says Sam Gosling, a personality researcher at the University of Texas.

For instance, if you find yourself surrounded by knick-knacks and symbols of personal relationships with friends, family and pets, you’re more likely to be in a woman’s office. Men’s offices, on the other hand, tend to display items pertaining to sports and personal achievements. Since we spend more waking hours at work than we do at home, it’s natural to want to decorate our office or cube spaces, creating a home away from home.

People who decorate their offices often have higher levels of job satisfaction and psychological well-being, leading to higher levels of employee morale and lower turnover. So, no matter how much or little work you have on your plate, maybe it’s time to start paying attention to what’s on your desk.

The meaning behind certain objects in people’s workspace:

• Placing a candy bowl in your office or cubicle is like putting down a welcome mat. It’s a clear indication of an extrovert. Comfortable, welcoming chairs have the same effect.

• A barren work space may indicate that a worker has little status in the organization and probably isn’t dedicated to his or her job.

• Time-conscious people often have a clock and calendar on their desks to help them keep track of appointments. Clock lovers are often meticulous and hardworking, but calendars can be deceiving. Often people stock up on supplies like wall calendars in an attempt to get more organized, but they still have the page turned to three months ago.

• Photos in the workplace can have double meanings. Perfect family photos that face guests rather than the office dweller can be perceived as status symbols, whereas photos facing the office owner are genuine reminders of loved ones (and often suggest guilt about spending time away from them).

Kissing @** is Tough Work. If You’re Going To Do It, Make Sure It’s The Right Way

There’s an art to sucking up, and if the boss (or your co-workers) can figure out what you’re up to, you’re not doing it right. More importantly, it will backfire. So while everyone calls it something different, it’s key to your success at work.

1. Speak your boss’ language. Figure out your boss’ style and adapt to it. Is your boss a huge sports fan? Learn sports metaphors and incorporate them into your conversations about work.

2. Make everything seem like it’s the boss’ idea. Instead of simply pitching the boss an idea, say something like, “Thanks for your guidance on that issue. As a result of your direction, here’s how I’d like to handle it.” That makes it seem like this bright idea you have is actually his.

3. Avoid gratuitous compliments. No need to gush over the boss’ new outfit. Instead, use compliments strategically. For instance, “That was a great idea you mentioned the other day. Here’s how I think we can execute it.”

4. Give the boss what he or she wants. If your boss is detailed and needs all your work to be the same, then do it. Give your boss the type of work he or she wants. Don’t waste time by complaining. It may not be the way you prefer to work, but it’s what your boss wants and that’s all that matters. Don’t complain or fight her about it.

5. Ask permission before offering input. This is a way of showing deference to the boss. Before offering your opinion say, “Can I give you some ideas that might enhance this project?” Or, “Would you be open to a different opinion than the one we’re talking about?” If you ask for permission to offer your thoughts, your manager will rarely say no.

6. Match the boss’ energy. If your boss is short, sequential and fast, match that. If he or she is leisurely and ponderous, match that. You get it. Each time you match the boss’ energy, you build trust and strengthen the relationship.

7. Respect the boss’ position. Remind him or her that you know who’s the boss. For instance, say, “I have these ideas, but I will defer to your decision.”

Once a buyer falls in love with a property, they actively collude in the whole fairy-tale process, swallowing whatever the seller says without thinking to question it.  

1. “My neighbors are wonderful!”  Really? Why not check it out for yourself? Knock on the wonderful neighbor’s door. Tell them you are thinking of buying the house next door and ask them what they think of the neighborhood.
2. “The roof leaked once, but we fixed it.”  The seller may not even think they are lying here, but if the repairs have been done in some half-baked way, you need to know. Get a professional home inspection. 
3. “I’ve only seen one termite on the deck.”  If there’s any hint that there might be problems with pests, you should get an insect inspection. These creatures are not wandering hobos dropping in on a house for a look around then moving on their merry way. They come in groups.
4. “There’s no radon — ever.”  Nearly one out of every 15 homes in the U.S. is estimated to have elevated radon levels. To find out about radon gas levels in your area, contact your local Environmental Protection Agency office.

5. “I didn’t know I should have told you about the foreclosure.” Get title insurance. Judgments, tax and mechanical liens are covered by title insurance.

6. “The planes from the airport don’t fly over this house.” You can find this out for sure by contacting the FAA.

7. “There’s never been any flooding.” Most older homes do have some flooding in the basement when there is excessive rain, so it is quite possible a seller could lie to you about this.

8. “Our schools are great!” For an objective view, get a free school report from HomeFair.com or GreatSchools.net.

9. “They can’t build on that lot across the street.” Why can’t they? If the lot is too small, they might get a variance. Talk to the planning board to find out.

A List Of Important Things You Should Do:

• Get a professional home inspection. Qualified home inspectors routinely uncover problems with houses that you can’t see. The most common problems involve plumbing, cooling and heating systems, leaky roofs, kitchen appliances and cracked foundations.

• Spring for extra inspections. These include insects, radon, leaky underground tanks and bad well-water.

• Visit the property during rush hour and on Friday or Saturday night. It’s the only way to see what the next-door kids are like, how traffic is on the weekends, and how noisy it really gets around the neighbor’s pool.

• Get a signed disclosure form from the seller or the broker representing the seller.  If they don’t disclose the defect, they’re subject to suit.

Britain Bows To China 

Beijing Olympic organisers said Monday they backed a ban on political protests by athletes attending this year’s Games, amid uproar over an effort to silence British athletes. China is believed to be concerned that some of the 10,000 athletes expected here for the Games could be used by human rights activists and other groups to stage protests designed to draw attention to their causes.

The controversy erupted in Britain after a Sunday newspaper reported that the British Olympic Association (BOA) had threatened that any athlete who refused to sign the gag order would not be allowed to travel to China. Basically, any British participant who signed the order and then spoke out during the Games would be sent home, according to the initial plan.

Prince Charles has already let it be known that he will not be going to China, even if he is invited by Games organisers.  His views on the Communist dictatorship are well known, after this newspaper revealed how he described China’s leaders as “appalling old waxworks” in a journal written after he attended the handover of Hong Kong. The Prince is also a long-time supporter of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader.

The controversial clause in the contract stated that athletes “are not to comment on any politically sensitive issues.” It then refers to Section 51 of the Olympic Charter, which says, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” Issues considered politically sensitive in communist-ruled China range from human rights, religious freedom, Tibet, Taiwan to Beijing’s role in Sudan.

The BOA took the decision even though other countries – including the United States, Canada, Finland, and Australia – have pledged that their athletes would be free to speak about any issue concerning China. To date, only New Zealand and Belgium have banned their athletes from giving political opinions while competing at the Games.

Whatever it takes to watch in style, right?

Home cinemas. huge screens, incredible sound systems and luxurious seats are popping up in seemingly spare rooms and basements. Take a look.

…Thanks To This Guy.  Daniel Bouton/Jerome Kerviel Goes Down In History

Société Générale, one of the largest banks in Europe, was thrown into turmoil Thursday after it revealed that a rogue employee had executed a series of “elaborate, fictitious transactions” that cost the company more than $7 billion, the biggest loss ever recorded in the financial industry by a single trader. Daniel Bouton, the Société Générale chairman, said the employee, later identified by other bank employees as Jérôme Kerviel, had confessed to the €4.9 billion fraud.

The bank has started legal proceedings against the employee, whom the governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer, said was currently “on the run.” Here’s a list of biggest losses EVER.