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The Simple Dollar Morning Roundup: On The Road Edition 10comments
I’m actually out of town right now (if you read yesterday’s roundup, you can probably guess why). I’m currently using a dial-up connection out in the middle of nowhere. So, without my feed reader, I’m somewhat stuck, so I spent some time reading some of the last few months of columns at Yahoo! Finance and I pulled out three that really piqued my interest.
On Unsolicited Advice Unsolicited advice really bothers me. I enjoy giving advice when it’s asked of me, but I really don’t like it when ol’ Auntie Muriel tells me that I’m investing like a moron. A blog lets me write about financial topics for people who actually want to read about it, thankfully, and it helps me keep my mouth shut and not offer any unsolicited advice.
Kid’s Money Expectations And The Gender Gap I observe this all the time in my nieces and nephews, actually. It seems like my nieces are far more likely to spend their money senselessly than my nephews are – they both seem to be natural savers.
Time Flies When You’re Unprepared My favorite writer on Yahoo! Finance is Ben Stein, so I would have been shocked if I didn’t pull out a good article from his recent writings. Many people ask me why I’m so focused on planning ahead at this point in my life – Ben explains it all brilliantly (as usual).
The Simple Dollar Retro: There Is No “Secret”: Why Feel-Good Thinking Isn’t Enough To Get Ahead Financially I was getting really fed up hearing about The Secret, so I let it all go here. It seems like that fad is dying down, though (thankfully).
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This site is for entertainment purposes only. Trent is not a financial advisor and no information found on this site should be construed as financial advice.
Ben Stein is the man.
Congratulations, Amy, you jumped all the way to conclusions! My nieces spend more money than my nephews – perhaps that means that they anticipate making more than my nephews? All I observed is that there is indeed a gender gap in how teenagers spend money, not making any other comment – you added your own conclusion to it.
Apparently it’s much easier to assume I’m being anti-woman than actually believing I’m stating an unbiased observation. The fact that you made such an assumption of bias immediately, though, does reveal that at least one of us is sexist.
Where’s the blood?
Trent, the word “senselessly” is probably what is misleading there, and the fact that you said “this” suggests that you were agreeing with what the linked article was saying rather than disputing it. Now we have more specific wording from you, we can consider the two texts alongside each other.
In fact, I think both Amy and Trent are making somewhat illogical arguments. I won’t enumerate because I’d rather see a civil discussion between you two. Take a deep breath. Start again.
I’m confused. What does senselessly spending money (in teenage girls or boys) have anything to do with the linked article, which discussed what they think of their earning potential?
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the fact that you are “without your feed reader”. Online feed readers have come a long way in the past couple years. I always recommend Google Reader, but this tends to be a nearly religious debate (like OS and vi vs emacs), and you have to try a few out and use what you’re comfortable with. Bloglines, NewsGator, FeedShow… there are a bunch.
Why tie yourself to a specific computer, especially for something like reading online content?
Well, I consider virtually all teenage spending to be senseless (including my own).
Also, the article discusses gender gaps and teenagers at length and my comment was about gender gaps and teenagers.
If your nieces and nephews all behave in a certain way, the first thing I’d suspect is your family or their community (assuming they all live close together). Anyway, how many nieces and nephews do you have? You can’t draw any conclusions from a sample of 3 girls and 3 boys, for instances. After all, you’ve said you weren’t so hot at saving money when you were little, and you were a boy.
I’m sorry, but I have to agree that the comment about the girls spending more was irrelevant. It was irrelevant because in the article “the gender gap” referred to a very specific gender gap: the gap in expectations of future earning potential. To relate this to an different gender gap (spending) is inappropriate. You may as well have brought up the gender gap in heart disease.
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Did you actually read that article on the gender gap? Because the only evidence it presented on gender differences between teens regarding money was that boys expect to earn more.
In fact, your post offers a lovely illustration of why teenage girls are probably being realistic, rather than unambitious, when they predict they’ll earn less than men. Given a mention of gender differences, you immediately reach for the hoary old concept that women are frivolous while men are responsible, despite the fact that the article discusses something else entirely.