#and sure people raise a stink about it sometimes but the vast majority of people

[violetwolfraven]

Was genuinely confused why people get upset about characters looking different than their original design in newer adaptations of whatever story and then I remembered I’m a ✨ theatre kid ✨ and not everyone is

[bitchesgetriches]

Hi Bitches, I have a question that's not really financial, but more about maintaining empathy in this capitalist hellscape. It's long, so I apologize in advance. So. I live in NYC and there are homeless people everywhere. I can remember being a kid and having huge amounts of sympathy for the homeless in my hometown city; I always gave some of my allowance money if I walked by a homeless person, or asked a parent for a dollar to give. Fast forward to now. I'm 27, have lived in 1/4

           NYC for 2+ years, and have lost so much sympathy for the suffering of the homeless. I know logically that I should be much more sympathetic to their situation, but I also can't help but to think that they are such a nuisance. I almost never give them a spare dollar or two now. I mean, I really need every dollar I make right now, at least I think I do. My family & I just can't afford it. I loathe them for inconveniencing me with their shouting and their stench. I think that if they've 2/4   

           reached the point of needing to beg strangers for help, they must have alienated all of their loved ones; I'd never be in that position. If the people who love them won't help them, why should I? But then logically I know that's not true either. I could be in that place with just a few family tragedies. It's this internal battle I deal with every day on my commute: I dehumanize these people, I feel guilty and logically know I'm wrong, I do nothing to help. I want to stop my dehumanization 3/4       

           of the homeless because I know it's wrong, and because I know I can do better for them and society can do better for them. The homelessness problem is clearly related to this capitalist world we live in, but what can be done? How do I stop mentally battling myself and actually get over being annoyed and repulsed every time a homeless person inconveniences me? Thank you bitches for everything, even if this never gets answered        

This is SUCH an interesting question. Thank you for asking it, dearheart! And I applaud you for your self-awareness, pragmatism, and compassion. It’s clear that this is a mental struggle for you, and the very fact that you don’t simply stop the introspection at “Well IIIII would never end up homeless, alone, and stinking up the sidewalk” but instead are working to improve your outlook speaks very highly of you.

So let’s talk about homelessness.

As John Oliver so eloquently explains in this clip, the vast majority of Americans are sooooo much closer to being a homeless beggar on the streets than they are to being on MTV’s Cribs. Our individual financial security is fucking precarious! That’s why we write this blog! Yes, you can build up an emergency fund and save six months of your income, but when you get right down to it, most of us are one major medical emergency away from bankruptcy.

And if you can’t recover from said emergency, if you don’t have a support network to get you out of that mess... that’s it. You’re done. You’re staring down the barrel of homelessness and getting judged by strangers on the street for your inability to stay clean and hygienic while you literally sleep under the overpass and rummage through the dumpster behind Panera for day-old bread.

Now let’s address your knee-jerk reaction that homeless people must’ve really fucked up to lose all support and end up on the street. Surely, someone like YOU could never end up there because you have people who love and support you, right?

Sadly, a lot of homeless people are mentally ill, and slipped through the cracks left by their caretakers and an imperfect system. Others are kids who have aged out of the foster care system with no helping hand and no prospects for an education or career. Others are gay and trans youth who were literally kicked out of their homes and disowned by their families. Others are addicted to substances in this great nation where we treat addiction like a crime rather than the public health crisis it is.

Put even the most normal, patient, chill person in any of these situations, grind them down with bad weather, abuse, lack of nutrition and healthcare for months and years, and I guarantee they’ll get a bit surly. When you meet a loud, annoying, unhygienic homeless person on the street, you’re meeting them at their worst. I defy you to act any better in their situation!

All of which is to say that even a homeless person who you find personally repugnant and unsympathetic is probably not so different from you. Non-homeless people can be massive fucking dicks, so why not the homeless?

I know I keep using “you” in a sort of accusatory fashion in this post, and I promise I’m not condescending to you or picking on you. It’s all meant to reinforce the idea that there is a very thin line separating all of us financially stable people from the homeless. That alone makes them worthy of our compassion and respect. Basic human decency goes a long way to someone who gets alternately ignored and shat upon by most of the human race.

Here’s s’more on why we should all cut the poor and homeless a break:

"Poor People Are Poor Because They Are _____. Rich People Are Rich Because They Are _____." 

It's More Expensive to Be Poor Than to Be Rich

Lastly, here’s what you can do to stop feeling impotent, useless, and heartless when you see a homeless person and you can’t afford to give them money.

Vote.

I personally very rarely give money to the homeless. But I do donate to a number of charitable organizations that help to alleviate the plight of the homeless and impoverished in my country. I also vote for politicians and policies that will improve life for those struggling to make ends meet. I support policies and politicians who aim to get at the root of the homelessness problem--not just systemic poverty, but inadequate mental health programs, lack of support for veterans and the disabled, and lack of protection for children suffering abuse or lacking stability in their home lives.

I pay taxes in the hopes that my money will be used to stab the root problems of homelessness in the heart. When I see a homeless person on the street, I remind myself that I am making informed political decisions to help them. I remind myself that they are the reason I donate to charities and food banks. And yeah, sometimes if I can, I spare a dollar for their plight. But if I can’t in that moment, then I know that I’ve still done something on a broader scale.

You need to start thinking this way to alleviate your guilt. Be the logical, pragmatic person you appear to be from your question. And remind yourself that some day, you could be in the same position whether you expect it or not.

Good luck, honey. It’s going to be ok.

Here’s some further reading:

Ask the Bitches: "How Do I Protect My Own Mental Health While Still Helping Others?"

Raising Awareness About "Raising Awareness"

Raising the Minimum Wage Would Make Our Lives Better 

How to Spot a Charitable Scam

Judging Charities Like Judgey McJudgerson: How Can Your Donation Make the Biggest Impact? 

[biofunmy]

Trump and Xi Agree to Restart Trade Talks, Avoiding Escalation in Tariff War

OSAKA, Japan — President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China agreed on Saturday to resume trade talks after a seven-week breakdown, averting for now an escalation of their multibillion-dollar tariff war that has roiled global markets and threatened the future of the world’s two largest economies.

The agreement, brokered during more than an hour of discussion between the leaders, did not by itself signal any major breakthrough in resolving the fundamental conflict. But it represented a temporary cease-fire to give negotiators another chance to forge a permanent accord governing the vast flow of goods and services between the two nations.

“We discussed a lot of things, and we’re right back on track,” Mr. Trump told reporters after his session with Mr. Xi on the sidelines of the annual summit meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Osaka, Japan. “We had a very, very good meeting with China,” the president added, “I would say probably even better than expected, and the negotiations are continuing.”

Mr. Trump promised to hold off on his threat to slap new 25 percent tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports, and he agreed to lift some restrictions on Huawei, the Chinese technology giant at the center of a dispute between the nations.

In exchange, he said, China agreed to buy a “tremendous amount” of American food and agricultural products. “We will give them a list of things we want them to buy,” he said.

Even as he returned to the negotiating table with China, Mr. Trump pursued a surprise initiative to lure North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, back into talks, as well. In response to his Twitter invitation to meet on Sunday at the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea, the president said Mr. Kim “was very receptive,” and the two sides scrambled on Saturday to see if they could arrange such an encounter at the last minute.

“I understand we may be meeting with Chairman Kim,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “We won’t call it a summit. We’ll call it a handshake.” Asked if he would be willing to cross over the line into North Korea for that handshake, he said: “Sure I would. I feel very comfortable doing that. I would have no problem.”

For Mr. Trump, who loves the theater of international affairs and relishes unpredictability, such a head-snapping turn of events would be the capstone to an eventful trip to Asia. He has juggled a variety of high-stakes disputes over security, economics and other issues, while keeping an eye on the emerging Democratic presidential campaign back home.

His wrap-up news conference before leaving Osaka for Seoul was a quintessential Trump performance. He roamed widely, sometimes in free association, weighing in not just on Asian issues, but also on the border situation at home, various court battles and his economic record. And for good measure, he threw in an unprovoked jab at Hillary Clinton, still his favorite punching bag.

Mr. Trump also left behind a stink bomb for his host, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, divulging that he had told the premier that the 68-year-old Japanese-American defense treaty, which has long been the foundation of the relationship between the two nations, should be overhauled. It is, in his view, not fair to the United States. “I told him, ‘We’ll have to change it,’” he said.

A meeting with Mr. Kim, following two others in the past year over his nuclear arsenal, would not be his only session with an authoritarian ruler during his visit to the region. During his news conference on Saturday, he defended his approach to meetings with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

He issued a particularly strong defense of Prince Mohammed, all but exonerating him in the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and columnist for The Washington Post.

“Nobody has directly pointed a finger” at the crown prince, Mr. Trump said, ignoring the fact that American and international intelligence agencies have done just that. His own C.I.A. has determined that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing, and a United Nations investigator found credible evidence to make a similar conclusion.

Instead, Mr. Trump indicated that he accepted the crown prince’s explanation that the Saudi government was prosecuting those who committed the murder. “A lot of people are being prosecuted, and they’re taking it very seriously there,” the president said. He asserted that Prince Mohammed was upset over the murder. “He’s very angry about it,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s very unhappy about it.”

As for Mr. Putin, he again brushed off the intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election on his behalf. A day after making light of it by jokingly telling Mr. Putin in front of cameras “don’t meddle in the election,” Mr. Trump dismissed criticism that he was not taking it seriously enough. “I did say it,” he argued.

He said the issue came up in his private conversation with Mr. Putin, but noted that the Russian leader had again denied it, an assertion with which he did not publicly quarrel. Indeed, Mr. Trump said he might accept an invitation by Mr. Putin to visit Moscow next spring for the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

He also tried to smooth over a rift with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey about his country’s purchase of S-400 missile defense systems from Russia. Mr. Trump blamed President Barack Obama’s administration for the dispute and acknowledged that he might have to impose sanctions required by law, but said he hoped to avoid that.

“It’s a problem, there’s no question about it,” Mr. Trump said with Mr. Erdogan at his side as the two prepared to meet behind closed doors. “We’re looking at different solutions.”

But the talks with China, with so much at stake for both sides, were the centerpiece of the trip.

The latest pause in the trade war seemed to be a repeat of sorts of what happened at the last G20 summit meeting, in December in Buenos Aires. There, Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi also met and agreed to postpone further tariffs pending negotiations and more soybean purchases by Beijing. The question is whether the new opening will yield any better result.

The “two sides are highly harmonious, and the areas of cooperation are broad,” Mr. Xi said, according to The People’s Daily, an official Chinese news outlet. “They should not fall into the trap of so-called conflict confrontation, but should promote each other and develop together.”

The biggest question over Saturday’s deal involved what exactly Mr. Trump had agreed to do for Huawei, which the United States has called a security threat. Mr. Trump said that he would allow more sales of American components to the telecom giant, and that the Commerce Department would soon review its legal measures restricting these exports.

But Mr. Trump did not say what would happen to pending Justice Department actions against the company and one of its executives, both of whom have denied wrongdoing.

Trade talks collapsed in May when China’s leadership became uncomfortable with many provisions in the draft text of a deal. Particularly contentious were draft provisions calling for China’s legislature to enact many amendments to Chinese laws.

The United States had insisted on the amendments as a way to make it more likely that Chinese government agencies would abide by promises made by Chinese negotiators. But a nationalistic backlash within the Chinese government prompted Chinese negotiators to send a new version of the draft agreement to American negotiators that deleted extensive passages.

Trade talks then broke down a week later, and Mr. Trump responded by raising tariffs on $200 billion a year in Chinese imports. He also threatened to slap 25 percent tariffs on another $300 billion a year worth of American imports from China. Beijing retaliated with its own tariffs.

Scott Kennedy, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said resuming trade talks and pausing further American tariffs still left the two sides with broad differences. In parallel with raising tariffs over the past year, the Trump administration has also imposed ever tighter limits on the sale of American high-tech products to China and on Chinese investment in the United States.

“They are more likely to continue going around in circles rather than reaching the destination of a real deal,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Neither side looks ready to compromise; meanwhile, the tech war will continue to intensify. This is a truce on only one front of the wider conflict.”

Sahred From Source link Business

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[mikemortgage]

Mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt: How the poor are bolstering the U.S. economy

PHILADELPHIA — By almost every measure, the U.S. economy is booming. But a look behind the headlines of roaring job growth and consumer spending reveals how the boom continues in large part by the poorer half of Americans fleecing their savings and piling up debt.

A Reuters analysis of U.S. household data shows that the bottom 60 per cent of income-earners have accounted for most of the rise in spending over the past two years even as the their finances worsened — a break with a decades-old trend where the top 40 per cent had primarily fuelled consumption growth.

With borrowing costs on the rise, inflation picking up and the effects of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts set to wear off, a negative shock — a further rise in gasoline prices or a jump in the cost of goods due to tariffs — could push those most vulnerable over the edge, some economists warn.

Cash is better than U.S. stocks for the first time in a decade — and that has some people worried

The front-line fighters of the financial crisis are getting nervous about the next one

Why a global economic slowdown is likely — and necessary — within the next year or so

That in turn could threaten the second-longest U.S. expansion given consumption makes up 70 per cent of the U.S. economy’s output.

To be sure, the housing market is far from the dangerous leverage reached in 2007 before the crash. With unemployment near its lowest since 2000 and job openings at record highs, people may also choose to work even more hours or take extra jobs rather than cut back on spending if the money gets tight.

In fact, a growing majority of Americans says they are comfortable financially, according to the Federal Reserve’s report on the economic well-being of U.S. households published in May and based on a 2017 survey.

Yet by filtering data on household finances and wages by income brackets, the Reuters analysis reveals growing financial stress among lower-income households even as their contribution to consumption and the broad economy grows.

The data shows the rise in median expenditures has outpaced before-tax income for the lower 40 per cent of earners in the five years to mid-2017 while the upper half has increased its financial cushion, deepening income disparities.

A hot job market and other signs of economic health encourage rich and poor alike to spend more, but tepid wage growth for many middle-class and lower-income Americans means they need to dip into their savings and borrow more to do that.

It is this recovery’s paradox.

A hot job market and other signs of economic health encourage rich and poor alike to spend more, but tepid wage growth for many middle-class and lower-income Americans means they need to dip into their savings and borrow more to do that.

As a result, over the past year signs of financial fragility have been multiplying, with credit card and auto loan delinquencies on the rise and savings plumbing their lowest since 2005.

Myna Whitney, 27, a certified medical assistant at Drexel University’s gastroenterology unit in Philadelphia, experienced that firsthand.

Three years ago, confident that a steady full-time job offered enough financial security, she took out loans to buy a Honda Odyssey and a US$119,000 house, where she lives with her mother and aunt.

Since then she has learned that making US$16.47 an hour — more than about 40 per cent of U.S. workers — was not enough.

“I was dipping into my savings account every month to just make all of the payments.” Whitney says. With her savings now down to US$900 from US$10,000 she budgets down to toilet paper and electricity. Cable TV and the occasional US$5 Groupon movie outings are her indulgences, she says, but laughs off a question whether she dines out.

“God forbid I get a ticket, or something breaks on the car. Then it’s just more to recover from.”

DRAINING SAVINGS

Stephen Gallagher, economist at Societe Generale, says stretched finances of those in the middle dimmed the economy’s otherwise positive outlook.

“They are taking on debt that they can’t repay. A drop in savings and rise in delinquencies means you can’t support the (overall) spending,” he said. An oil or trade shock could lead to “a rather dramatic scaling back of consumption,” he added.

Some economists say that without the US$1.5 trillion in tax cuts enacted in January spending, which has grown by around 3 per cent a year over the past few years, could already be stalling now.

In the past, rising incomes of the upper 40 per cent of earners have driven most of the consumption growth, but since 2016 consumer spending has been primarily fuelled by a run-down in savings, mainly by the bottom 60 per cent of earners, according to Oxford Economics.

This reflects in part better access to credit for low-income borrowers late in the economic cycle.

Yet it is the first time in two decades that lower earners made a greater contribution to spending growth for two years in a row.

“It’s generally really hard for people to cut back on expenses, or on a certain lifestyle, especially when the context of the economy is actually really positive,” said Gregory Daco, Oxford’s chief U.S. economist. “It’s essentially a weak core that makes the back of the economy a bit more susceptible to strains and potentially to breaking.”

JOBS NOT RAISES

While the Fed expects the labour market to get even hotter this year and next, policymakers have been perplexed that wages do not reflect that.

With inflation factored in, average hourly earnings dropped by a penny in May from a year ago for 80 per cent of the country’s private sector workers, including those in the vast healthcare, fast food and manufacturing industries, Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show.

“It stinks,” says Jennifer Delauder, 44, who runs a medical lab at Huttonsville Correctional Center in West Virginia. In seven years her hourly wage has risen by about US$2 to US$14.

She took on two part-time jobs to help pay rent, utilities and a student loan. But she still sometimes trims her weekly US$15 grocery budget to make ends meet, or even gathers broken fans, car parts, and lanterns to sell as scrap metal. A US$2,000 hospital bill early this year wiped out her savings.

With inflation factored in, average hourly earnings dropped by a penny in May from a year ago for 80 per cent of the country’s private sector workers, including those in the vast healthcare, fast food and manufacturing industries, Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show.

Even so, Delauder, a grandmother, recently signed papers for a mortgage of up to US$150,000 on a house. “I’m paying rent for a house. I might as well pay for a house that I own,” she said.

Hourly wages for lower- and middle-income workers rose just over 2 per cent in the year to March 2017, compared with about 4 per cent for those near the top and bottom, while spending jumped by roughly 8 percent.

That reflects both higher costs of essentials such as rent, prescription drugs and college tuition but also some increased discretionary spending, for example at restaurants.

Economists say one symptom of financial strain was last year’s spike in serious delinquencies on U.S. credit card debt, which many poorer households use as a stop-gap measure. The US$815-billion market is not big enough to rattle Wall Street, but could be an early sign of stress that might spread to other debt as the Fed continues its gradual policy tightening.

More borrowers have also been falling behind on auto loans, which helped bring leverage on non-mortgage household debt to a record high in the first quarter of this year.

While painting a broadly positive picture, the Fed’s well-being survey also noted that one in four adults feared they could not cover an emergency US$400 expense and one in five struggled with monthly bills. This month the central bank reported to Congress that rising delinquencies among riskier borrowers represented “pockets of stress.”

That many Americans lack any financial safety net remains a concern, New York Fed President John Williams told Reuters in an interview last month. “Even though the overall picture is pretty good, pretty solid, or strong,” he said, “this is a problem that continues to hang over half of our country.”

© Thomson Reuters 2018

from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2NEWqIS via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

[alamante]

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – By almost every measure, the U.S. economy is booming. But a look behind the headlines of roaring job growth and consumer spending reveals how the boom continues in large part by the poorer half of Americans fleecing their savings and piling up debt.

FILE PHOTO: A Walmart employee helps a customer load a 50″ TV he bought on sale in Broomfield, Colorado, U.S., November 28, 2014. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo

A Reuters analysis of U.S. household data shows that the bottom 60 percent of income-earners have accounted for most of the rise in spending over the past two years even as the their finances worsened – a break with a decades-old trend where the top 40 percent had primarily fueled consumption growth.

With borrowing costs on the rise, inflation picking up and the effects of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts set to wear off, a negative shock – a further rise in gasoline prices or a jump in the cost of goods due to tariffs – could push those most vulnerable over the edge, some economists warn.

That in turn could threaten the second-longest U.S. expansion given consumption makes up 70 percent of the U.S. economy’s output.

To be sure, the housing market is far from the dangerous leverage reached in 2007 before the crash. With unemployment near its lowest since 2000 and job openings at record highs, people may also choose to work even more hours or take extra jobs rather than cut back on spending if the money gets tight.

In fact, a growing majority of Americans says they are comfortable financially, according to the Federal Reserve’s report on the economic well-being of U.S. households published in May and based on a 2017 survey.

Yet by filtering data on household finances and wages by income brackets, the Reuters analysis reveals growing financial stress among lower-income households even as their contribution to consumption and the broad economy grows.

The data shows the rise in median expenditures has outpaced before-tax income for the lower 40 percent of earners in the five years to mid-2017 while the upper half has increased its financial cushion, deepening income disparities. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2LdUMBa )

It is this recovery’s paradox.

A hot job market and other signs of economic health encourage rich and poor alike to spend more, but tepid wage growth for many middle-class and lower-income Americans means they need to dip into their savings and borrow more to do that.

As a result, over the past year signs of financial fragility have been multiplying, with credit card and auto loan delinquencies on the rise and savings plumbing their lowest since 2005.

FILE PHOTO: Shoppers ride escalators at the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 8, 2013. REUTERS/David McNew/File Photo

Myna Whitney, 27, a certified medical assistant at Drexel University’s gastroenterology unit in Philadelphia, experienced that firsthand.

Three years ago, confident that a steady full-time job offered enough financial security, she took out loans to buy a Honda Odyssey and a $119,000 house, where she lives with her mother and aunt.

Since then she has learned that making $16.47 an hour – more than about 40 percent of U.S. workers – was not enough.

“I was dipping into my savings account every month to just make all of the payments.” Whitney says. With her savings now down to $900 from $10,000 she budgets down to toilet paper and electricity. Cable TV and the occasional $5 Groupon movie outings are her indulgences, she says, but laughs off a question whether she dines out.

“God forbid I get a ticket, or something breaks on the car. Then it’s just more to recover from.”

DRAINING SAVINGS

Stephen Gallagher, economist at Societe Generale, says stretched finances of those in the middle dimmed the economy’s otherwise positive outlook.

“They are taking on debt that they can’t repay. A drop in savings and rise in delinquencies means you can’t support the (overall) spending,” he said. An oil or trade shock could lead to “a rather dramatic scaling back of consumption,” he added.

Some economists say that without the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts enacted in January spending, which has grown by around 3 percent a year over the past few years, could already be stalling now.

In the past, rising incomes of the upper 40 percent of earners have driven most of the consumption growth, but since 2016 consumer spending has been primarily fueled by a run-down in savings, mainly by the bottom 60 percent of earners, according to Oxford Economics.

This reflects in part better access to credit for low-income borrowers late in the economic cycle.

Yet it is the first time in two decades that lower earners made a greater contribution to spending growth for two years in a row.

Slideshow (7 Images)

“It’s generally really hard for people to cut back on expenses, or on a certain lifestyle, especially when the context of the economy is actually really positive,” said Gregory Daco, Oxford’s chief U.S. economist. “It’s essentially a weak core that makes the back of the economy a bit more susceptible to strains and potentially to breaking.”

JOBS NOT RAISES

While the Fed expects the labor market to get even hotter this year and next, policymakers have been perplexed that wages do not reflect that.

With inflation factored in, average hourly earnings dropped by a penny in May from a year ago for 80 percent of the country’s private sector workers, including those in the vast healthcare, fast food and manufacturing industries, Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show.

“It stinks,” says Jennifer Delauder, 44, who runs a medical lab at Huttonsville Correctional Center in West Virginia. In seven years her hourly wage has risen by about $2 to $14.

She took on two part-time jobs to help pay rent, utilities and a student loan. But she still sometimes trims her weekly $15 grocery budget to make ends meet, or even gathers broken fans, car parts, and lanterns to sell as scrap metal. A $2,000 hospital bill early this year wiped out her savings.

Even so, Delauder, a grandmother, recently signed papers for a mortgage of up to $150,000 on a house. “I’m paying rent for a house. I might as well pay for a house that I own,” she said.

Hourly wages for lower- and middle-income workers rose just over 2 percent in the year to March 2017, compared with about 4 percent for those near the top and bottom, while spending jumped by roughly 8 percent.

That reflects both higher costs of essentials such as rent, prescription drugs and college tuition but also some increased discretionary spending, for example at restaurants.

Economists say one symptom of financial strain was last year’s spike in serious delinquencies on U.S. credit card debt, which many poorer households use as a stop-gap measure. The $815-billion market is not big enough to rattle Wall Street, but could be an early sign of stress that might spread to other debt as the Fed continues its gradual policy tightening.

More borrowers have also been falling behind on auto loans, which helped bring leverage on non-mortgage household debt to a record high in the first quarter of this year.

While painting a broadly positive picture, the Fed’s well-being survey also noted that one in four adults feared they could not cover an emergency $400 expense and one in five struggled with monthly bills. This month the central bank reported to Congress that rising delinquencies among riskier borrowers represented “pockets of stress.”

That many Americans lack any financial safety net remains a concern, New York Fed President John Williams told Reuters in an interview last month. “Even though the overall picture is pretty good, pretty solid, or strong,” he said, “this is a problem that continues to hang over half of our country.”

(Graphic: Poorer Americans help fuel economic boom – at a price – tmsnrt.rs/2LdUMBa)

Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Ann Saphir in San Francisco and Howard Schneider in Washington; Editing by Tomasz Janowski

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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[ronaldmrashid]

What If You Go To Harvard And End Up A Nobody?

A happy life is all about managing expectations. If you matriculate at Harvard, great things are expected of you. And if you don’t do great things, are you a disappointment?

Education has been on my mind a lot lately because of my new jobs as a varsity high school tennis coach and as a stay at home dad. I’ve seen first hand the grind my student athletes go through and I sometimes wonder whether it’s all worth it. Supposedly my high school is one of the best in the city, yet not every graduate goes to a university like Harvard.

I pick on Harvard because it’s the most well known university in the world and also costs about $63,025 annually in tuition, room, and board if you receive no aid. If there’s one school you’d be willing to sacrifice your entire life savings for, Harvard would be it. But you can substitute any elite private university in the title, and the point is the same.

Using the word “nobody” is admittedly harsh, but I come from the viewpoint that for at least 13 years after college, I was a nobody, busy working in banking. Yes, banking is an integral part of making an economy work, much like oil is to a car engine. However, at the end of the day, all I was doing was helping corporations and fund managers get wealthier. Sad, but I’m doing my best to change.

If you attend a school like Harvard, you must go on to do great things. With an acceptance rate of only 5.4%, you aren’t allowed to retire early and waste your potential, be a stay at home parent before age 35, work the same job as someone who went to State U, or morph into some highly opinionated personal finance blogger who enjoys stoking the fire. Now that you can learn everything online for free, the stakes for achieving greatness have never been higher!

The purpose of this article is to:

1)  Challenge our unhealthy desire for prestige and money

2) Reassess the pressure cooker environment we put our kids through

3) Discover what actual Harvard graduates do for a living

4) Encourage our smartest people to do more productive things with their lives

5) Give folks who’ve been rejected from elite universities and coveted jobs hope that anything is possible

6) Go beyond the act of giving money by spending more time helping other people

Profiles Of Those Who Went To An Elite School

We only hear about famous people who went to Harvard. You know, people like the 43rd POTUS George W. Bush, the “inventor” of the internet Al Gore, Chairman of the Fed Ben Bernanke, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Academy Award winner actress Natalie Portman, former First Lady Michelle Obama, the 35th POTUS John F Kennedy, unabomber Ted Kacznski and NBA basketball player Jeremy Lin.

But what about the thousands of graduating alumni Harvard spits out every year? What do they do? Let’s find out through a semi-random sampling of LinkedIn profiles online. To get my search started, I chose one person I know who went to Harvard and then clicked forward to see what her fellow classmates ended up doing.

My sample set is admittedly biased as someone with a finance background who therefore knows more finance people than average, but let’s see where the rabbit hole goes. I’ve changed some of the dates and tidbits to protect the identity of these random folks. If you think I’m talking about you, I’m not!

Profile #1

Harvard College

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Occupation: Investment banking and private equity before b-school, private equity tech investor at TPG after b-school

Thoughts: She mentioned to me during a summer associate internship that she was not going to b-school for the main purpose of making money after I asked whether she’s going back to private equity after graduation. With an air of nobility she said, “Sam, life is not just about making money you know?” She then decided to go back into private equity and is now a VP making even more money. This career profile is the quintessential and stereotypical pedigree of an elite private school graduate.

Profile #2

Tufts University

Harvard MBA

Occupation: Clorox marketing manager, Twitter marketing manager, self-employed, brand strategy at a Willamette Valley vineyard

Thoughts: Not many people think about working at an old-school consumer products company after getting a Harvard MBA, but Clorox has one of the best management training programs. But if you think about it, how excited can you really be marketing a toilet bowl cleaning wand as your career? She joined Twitter soon after IPO, but since the stock has done poorly, the company went through several rounds of layoffs and I suspect she was a casualty given her year of self-employment afterward. But now, she has a pretty cool job marketing wine and living a relaxing life!

Profile #3

Harvard College

Dartmouth MBA

Occupation: Goldman Sachs, CLSA MD

Thoughts: Another standard career path for those who attend Ivy league universities. He was a great guy who caught an error in my resume when I was interviewing. I got the dates mixed up. I’m just surprised he’s still working since he was at GS for years before GS went public in 1999, and has worked for 25+ years now. I wonder whether he went through a divorce or something else is going on. 

Profile #4

Philips Academy Andover: Prestigious northeast private high school

Harvard College

Occupation: McKinsey Consulting analyst, VP of Operations at failed e-commerce startup, founder of clothing startup that needs funding

Thoughts: McKinsey is one of the hardest places to get a job after college due to their infamous case study interviews and brainteasers e.g. how many jelly beans can fit inside a Boeing 747 and why? After McKinsey, he spent five years working at one of the biggest flameouts in e-commerce history where the company raised over $300M and was valued at over $1B before getting acquired for less than $30M. Good for him for utilizing what he learned to start his own e-commerce company. But without another round of funding this year, it’s highly likely his business will dissolve and he’ll end up burning through lots of his own cash. Running in place for 10 years is tough. 

Profile #5 

Yale University undergrad

Yale University Masters

Harvard College PhD

Occupation: Analytics for a startup, analyst for a mobile gaming startup, director of growth for a startup, head of growth for another startup, venture capital, self-employed

Thoughts: I’m absolutely blown away by his resume. I was strongly considering getting a PhD after I left the private sector in 2012, but realized I was too dumb and impatient. The weird thing is, after all his education, he went on to join companies that have nothing to do with what he learned. I can do analytics and growth marketing with the best of them since I run my own site. His path makes me feel that getting a PhD is too costly a career move today. With his resume, I would be seriously disappointed with my career so far. 

Profile #6

Yale University

Occupation: Forbes 30 Under 30, Started a social media advertising company that rebranded after six years because they needed a change in direction (code for things aren’t working as planned)

Thoughts: I’m always impressed with the Forbes X Under X crowd. Yale has a 6.3% acceptance rate and is right up there with Harvard in terms of prestige. The advertising technology space is very hard because the margins are so thin and Google and Facebook are the oligopoly players. I tried creating my own online advertising network and did OK for about two years before I got undercut. It doesn’t look like her company will ever get acquired, which stinks b/c for six years, I’m sure she and her co-founders weren’t paying themselves a market rate salary. They could have worked in tech, banking or consulting and probably made 3X more in the same time frame. But all the same, props to anybody who starts a company and makes it last for over six years!

Profile #7

Harvard University: Math major, Phi Beta Kapa

Occupation: Co-founder of the social media ad startup with the Yale main founder, but left to start his own fintech company providing cheaper retirement plans for companies. Y Combinator backed.

Thoughts: After he realized the adtech startup wasn’t going to flourish, he applied to the famous startup incubator, Y Combinator, got in and launched his own fintech company that serves to reduce 401k administration fees. He raised a $3.5M seed round in 2016, and we shall see what happens! I’m completely biased for people who start a company, get into an incubator, raise money, and try and create something out of nothing. The vast majority fail, even with smart backers, but it’s still impressive all the same. I just wonder whether it’s necessary to go to Harvard or Yale to start a company? 

Profile #8

Punahou: Hawaii private grade school

Harvard College

Occupation: TV anchor at Bloomberg

Thoughts: Punahou is the school I’d love for my son to attend if we move back to Hawaii. It’s K-12, which makes it much more convenient once you get in compared to schools in SF where you’ve got to reapply for high school after K – 8. The cost is about $20,500 a year, which is 60% cheaper than private schools in SF and NYC. This Harvard graduate is doing a bang up job as the anchor of Bloomberg West. I’m the most impressed with her profile. 

Profile #9

Harvard College

Harvard MBA

Occupation: Credit Suisse before b-school, McKinsey after b-school

Thoughts: Most graduates just stick to the finance path or the strategy consulting path. So it’s rare to see him try both. It feels like he’s still trying to figure out what he really wants to do in life given he’s still in his 20s. Understandable, but once again, I’m left wondering how we can encourage the smartest people on Earth to do more to help other people rather than to chase money. 

Profile #10

Greenwich Academy: Private high school

Harvard College: Majored in Art History

Occupation: Reporter at The NYT, founded a subscription based tech news site

Thoughts: Pretty neat to have worked for The NYT and then do something entrepreneurial in his field of expertise. Subscription based news websites are tough because most of the news you can read for free or can be shared for free. But all you need is 10,000 subscribers paying $100 a year to earn $1,000,000 in revenue, and perhaps $500,000 a year in take home pay. I’ve just decided to go the 100% free model because there’s only upside when you’re at the bottom! I really like people who take what they’ve learned from their day jobs and try to do something on their own. I wish more people did this because there’s so much inefficiency with larger corporations.

Profile #11

I’olani School – Private high school in Honolulu, main competitor to Punahou

Dartmouth College

Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Occupation: venture capital fundraising, private equity fundraising, account executive for a software company (8 months), consultant for a small CRM company (9 months), business development manager at a food delivery startup.

Thoughts: I’m thoroughly disappointed. After 19 years of private school and $600,000 in tuition, the guy ended up at a company that has already raised a Series D round. Even if the company goes public, he’s unlikely going to make a large amount of money joining so late in the game. Food delivery companies have come under siege lately (Bento Now went under, Sprig went under, Munchery laid off a bunch of workers etc). If his company was figuring out how to deliver food more efficiently and profitably to help feed people at the bottom of the pyramid, that would be amazing. But it’s not. 

Overall Harvard Alumni Snapshot

Now that you’ve read my not so arbitrary 11 profiles of Harvard and other Ivy League alumni, let me share with you the Harvard graduate data provided by LinkedIn. It’s a good idea to type in your school of choice and read their snapshot before attending. Let’s take a look.

LinkedIn profile of 201,507 Harvard Alumni

There’s a lot of misinformation in the graphs due to mislabeling, but we learn the following:

* The Boston Area is ranked first in terms of where most Harvard alum end up working. So you’ve got to wonder why Boston isn’t more of an economic powerhouse like New York City, London, or the San Francisco Bay Area. Boston is relatively cheap compared to other major international cities.

* New York City, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles are the main cities of employment for Harvard alum.

* Google, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, IBM, BCG, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, and Bain are the most common employers. All the others listed in the employers column have to do with education.

* Business Development is the most common role. Business Development basically is a catchall phrase for those who try to build new business partnerships with other companies to grow revenue, profits, and exposure. For example, the Business Development role at Financial Samurai may entail building new advertising relationships with products in the retirement space. Biz Dev requires financial acumen, social skills, negotiating skills, and product knowledge. It’s a good role to be in before you start your own company. I’m surprised Education is higher than Entrepreneurship, since everybody wants to be their own boss.

In contrast, take a look at the graduate profile on LinkedIn of my alma mater, William & Mary in Virginia. There’s a definite geographic bias towards the East Coast and it looks like consulting companies are the main employers. I’m proud to see Education and Community and Social Services right up there in the What they do column. Check out your school’s profile as well.

William & Mary

Be Somebody

One of the most peculiar situations I found myself in was rejecting Harvard University and other Ivy League applicants for summer internships or financial analyst jobs at Goldman Sachs between 1999 – 2001. Goldman made all employees, regardless of their seniority, actively participate in the interview process in order to maintain our tight culture.

Here I was, a guy who absolutely would not have gotten into Harvard if I applied, rejecting guys and gals who would run circles around me in school. I’d most likely whip them on the tennis court, but tennis wasn’t a prerequisite to get a job in banking, or was it? There’s something to be said for hiring well-rounded individuals instead of robots.

Google, McKinsey, Microsoft, Amazon and the likes are all amazing companies with plenty of elite university graduates. But at the end of the day, what exactly are you doing with all that education and your top 0.1% brain? Is your life’s purpose to figure out how to best optimize an online ad? Is your calling to provide senior management reasons why they should fire 25% of their work force to optimize profits? Are you seriously pumped to wake up each morning to figure out how to best improve on demand food delivery times? Come on. There’s got to be more to work than making lots of money.

The most fulfilling work directly helps someone in need. You will NEVER feel burnt out and will NEVER burn out as long as you are making a difference in someone else’s life. I wasn’t lucky enough to realize this until I was in my 30s. Better late than never.

Although it’s nice to donate money once you’ve made enough money, the people who are most inspiring are the teachers, social workers, and non-profit advocates of the world. They are the ones who often help the most, but curiously get paid the least. And then there are the amazing research scientists and doctors who are actually utilizing their incredible intelligence to give people hope.

If you didn’t get into a school like Harvard, be thankful! You won’t have the expectations of the world on your shoulders. Further, you likely won’t get trapped in a career cycle of endlessly pursuing money and prestige. Once you’re in the vortex, it’s almost impossible to break free. And if you did attend Harvard or the like, major props to you. Utilize your intellectual gift by doing something the rest of us could never imagine!

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Related:

Life After Financial Independence

The Unhealthy Desire For Money And Prestige Is Ruining Your Life

How To Make Six Figures At Almost Any Age

Abolish Welfare Mentality: A Janitor Makes $250,000+ A Year

Readers, any Harvard or other Ivy League alumni out there? If so, what are you doing now for work? Did you feel pressure to really be someone great given the prestige of your university? What kind of educational and career expectations do you have for yourself and for your kids? What is your definition of “somebody”?

from http://www.financialsamurai.com/what-if-you-go-to-harvard-and-end-up-a-nobody/