Where Savers Live
What makes one person a saver and another a spender? Income? Education? Genes? What about where a person lives? A.G. Edwards has identified the communities where residents do the best at building wealth. As reported on Yahoo Finance recently, the company examined 12 financial factors--everything from retirement plan participation to credit card debt--among residents of all 50 states and more than 900 individual towns. New Jersey came out as the state with the highest proportion of super savers; Los Alamos, New Mexico was the top city. You can find out where your city and state rank by going here.
A.G. Edwards also produces a national Nest Egg Score, a multi-dimensional quarterly analysis of the saving proficiency of the United States as a whole. The third quarter score stands at 631, which the company deems "fair." To see how your individual score compares, go here.
Matt's View
The ranking of communities brings up a question about cause and effect. Do the areas that ranked highest tend to foster good saving habits among their residents or are the residents' behaviors independent of any such community influence? The authors of The Millionaire Next Door concluded that where one lives has a significant impact on their financial habits. Move into a neighborhood where people tend to earn more than you and you will likely soon find yourself spending more in an unintentional quest to keep up. So, perhaps those who aspire to save more should consider moving to a top nest egg building community. Keeping up with the Joneses in those towns would be a good thing.
This article filed in: Saving
Managing Money by The Book
- "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." - Matthew 7:24-25
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