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• Burns at Large
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• The Old-Fashioned Alternative to Investing

  What? You still haven't made your fortune? Beginning to think that you'll never get rich by investing? Don't despair. There is still hope. It comes to us from an unlikely source, the Internal Revenue Service, in a study that is updated every three years... Posted Jan 13 2007, 06:00 PM by scottb with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Financial Planning, Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• Yes, the Rich Have (Still) More Money

  If you're young, I've got some good news. You don't need as much money to be considered well off as you did a few years ago. A 20-something is in the top 25 percent with a net worth of only $30,000. That's down from $37,800 only three... Posted Aug 13 2006, 04:09 PM by scottb with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• Affection and Forethought: Worth Millions

  Want someone in your family to be rich? You can make it happen with a mixture of affection, forethought, and relatively small sums of money. The mixture can be turned into millions of dollars if that 'someone' in your family is a grandchild. The magic... Posted Sep 14 2004, 03:02 PM by scottb with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Small Change Millionaires, Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• Wealth Inflation

  Each time I reach for the brass ring, it eludes me. Your experience has probably been the same. The problem is Wealth Inflation, a runaway increase in the amount of money we need to feel well off. If you haven't heard of wealth inflation before, don't... Posted Feb 29 2004, 02:07 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• The Bigger Scoreboard: Implied Wealth

  "Scott, that column really depressed me," a doctor friend told me shortly after the first Wealth Scoreboard appeared in 2000. I wondered why. By any reasonable measure he was doing very well. Then in his mid-fifties, he had a successful practice, an income... Posted Sep 09 2003, 10:47 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Social Security, Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• Score Yourself for Wealth, The Sequel

  Want to be among those who "have money"? Well, you'll need more of it. That's the bottom line on the wealth scoreboard--- net worth is up, way up, from 1998 to 2001. And it probably wasn't as badly damaged by 2002, as all our media whining would suggest... Posted Sep 07 2003, 10:54 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• Figuring Out How Much Is Enough

  Q. Several years ago one of your columns included an estimate of net worth necessary for retirement regardless of age. Basically, it was a value 20 times the expenses needed for one year. It was predicated on the conditions at the time and we have seen... Posted Jul 24 2003, 02:45 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• Coming Soon: Post Bubble Wealth Distribution

  Q. The old "test yourself for wealth" test (on your website) was way before the bubble burst. How would it look these days? I suspect the really rich would have become even richer (as not having the majority of their assets in IRAs/ordinary investments... Posted Jan 09 2003, 11:17 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Financial Planning, Q&A (from print), Retirement, Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• The Life of Riley Index, Retiree Version

  We need to plan on having a retirement income that is at least 85 percent of our pre-retirement earnings. That's what the Retirement Industry tells us. Should we believe them? This is not an idle question. The answer has a major impact on how large our... Posted Apr 30 2002, 09:44 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Retirement, Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• The Life of Riley Index Hits a New High

  The cost of being financially independent reached a record high $2.1 million last year. I am referring to The Life of Riley Index, a measure of how much money you need to be Independently Middle Class. That $2.1 million is a lot more than most middle... Posted Apr 28 2002, 09:52 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• Wealth, Chance and Virtue

  We all like to know how we're doing. That explains why readers regularly ask for an update of the wealth distribution table that appeared in a column written in June 2000. (The table is shown below.) Alas, the update will have to wait. Most wealth research... Posted Apr 14 2002, 10:42 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Burns at Large, Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• The Sagging Fortunes of Millionaires

  Q. How about an update on wealth after the "bear market"? Your last one was June 4 ,2000. If the data hasn't been updated, can you take a guess? ---C.P., Dallas, TX A. We can guess but it would be just that--- a guess. Most wealth studies are based on... Posted Dec 20 2001, 02:35 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Q&A (from print), Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• Score Yourself for Wealth

  How do you rank on the wealth Scoreboard? While it's possible to get some ideas from academic articles using data from the regular Survey of Consumer Finances, we can get a better idea by visiting some of the people who take the actual survey data and... Posted Jun 04 2000, 02:09 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index

• What’s Your Wealth Score?

  Okay. Time to check on how we're doing versus the Joneses. We can do this by digging through the figures in the newly released 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances. The survey is done every three years by the Federal Reserve Board to check on our collective... Posted Feb 01 2000, 09:46 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Wealth Scoreboard & Life of Riley Index