Forbes released the 2007 list of billionaires this week. Check it out. Here are is a small excerpt from Forbes website to get you started:
There were 178 newcomers, including 19 Russians, 14 Indians, 13 Chinese and 10 Spaniards, as well as the first billionaires from Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia….
….The average billionaire is 62 years old, two years younger than in 2005. This year’s new billionaires are seven years younger than that. Of list members’ fortunes, 60% made theirs from scratch.
Recently, I did some rough analysis on the 2006 list of billionaires in this post. May be I will do something similar for the latest list, in time to come.
Anyways, let’s get to the latest edition of the Sunday Review.
A Follow-up to the Dave Ramsey Mortgage Post - This is Interesting! by JLP @ AllFinancialMatters.com: JLP runs some quick (and interesting) numbers to compare two situations: 1. Get rid of your mortgage very very early by making large payments, and 2. Instead of paying it off early, invest the additional amount over the span of the mortgage. Read the comments on this one !
Survey Finds Many Workers Fail to Save Enough, Make Poor Investment Choices by Jeremy @ Generation X Finance. Jeremy reviews the findings of a latest survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
…people are not saving enough and many of those who do are not investing the money properly. This isn’t news, but some of the actual statistics are shocking. For instance the number of higher income earners having less than one year’s worth of salary saved up and they have been employed for over 20 years.
I am going to read that survey carefully. I am especially interested in what Watson Wyatt Worldwide defines as “enough” when they say “workers don’t start saving soon enough, don’t save enough”
Buy that Big Screen TV You Want and You’ll Still be Fine When You Retire by Sun @ The Sun’s Financial Diary. Read this after you finish reading Jeremy’s article above. Notice the contrasting point of views some of these surveys are giving out (although this one is specifically about retirement) ? Pretty soon we will have something like this: “Survey finds that huge number of contrasting surveys are confusing people about savings and retirement trends.” 
Should You Quit School Because You’re Brilliant? by SVB @ The Digerati Life. SVB analyzes pros and cons of leaving behind the conventional education system in pursuit of that bright spark in your brain. Honestly, even if I have that rare brilliant idea about doing something independently, I don’t have the guts to leave school and go after it. May be, this attitude also makes me a *bad* investor of sorts.
Festival of Under 30 Finances - Money & Love Edition @ Money Smart Life. A question was posed for the festival participants “What is the worst money move you’ve made either because of or in spite of LOVE?“. There are some interesting answers, and a few posts on the subject. Here is one of the answers:
I turned down a very lucrative job offer so that the better half and I could stay close by. Financially, it was a bad move. Emotionally and relationship wise, the best one! Money, just cant compete with love
Investing 101 - Lump Sum Performs Better Than Dollar Cost Average by Super Saver @ My Wealth Builder. Super Saver contemplates on some features of dollar cost averaging (DCA). There are links to a couple of interesting articles that compare the DCA approach to the lump sum investing approach.
In other news from my blogger friends, Lazy Man and Money was chosen as the Blog of the Week by JLP’s AllFinancialMatters.com (congrats Lazy) and Binary Dollar got pulled over by ArkansasBusiness.com for including Arkansas in the list of “…some of the most stereotypically boring places to live in the United States” 
Image sources: $50 bill house - www.themoneyalert.com; man with bulbs - www.runet.edu
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the mention!
Golbguru,
60% of billionaires started from scratch and average age is 62. Hey, since I’m starting from scratch and not yet 62, I still have a chance
Again an excellent Sunday review. DST threw off my schedule and I getting to it later than usual. The discussion about saving too much for retirement is interesting. Something to ponder for a future post:-)
Thanks for the roundup! Great things to ponder about :). Sun’s post makes me feel a bit better about spending ;). But it’s truly interesting to see the contrasting posts side by side!
School is a great safehaven, but when you get out will you get hired? I wonder if spending all that money on the BA was worth it, but it seems like staying in for the masters would have just been digging myself deeper into the hole. I really hope I’m a superpessimist and you have far better luck but is the advanced degree going to pay off? Especially if you have no experience in the field?
Jeremy: you are welcome!
I would like my buying power to be highest between the ages 35-55, that’s when (I think) I can really make good use of the money, by spending it for myself and my family. I am just thinking aloud here.
Super Saver: Yeah..somehow it’s a bit ironic that median age of the richest people is sort of *post-retirement*….so, you have the most money when you may not be needing it.
SVB: Yeah…I think money is for spending (not for getting yourself a multi-million dollar retirement). As long as you have “sufficient” buffer for retirement, you should be able to freely spend the rest of it.
Dimes: Hmm…advanced degrees in (most) engineering fields pay off really well (as far as I can see). The downside is debt, and loss of earning in the time you spend on studying. But, down the line, having a higher degree helps a lot with respect to promotions, % increases in pay, better retirement prospects, and probably extra opportunities that may take you up the corporate ladder faster.
For engineering, this works even if you don’t have work experience in your field. However, I cannot speak with the same confidence for other fields of study.
I’m still waiting to see my name on that billionaires list
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