Lisa

I agree with the strange data on personal and HHI. I think that many people are not aware of the two exact definitions, which are sometimes hard to apply if you’re still young.

For HHI, I think we needed to differentiate between people living with their parents (high HHI), whether living with roommates or siblings or significant others should count, etc.

Most PMB surveys include a definition so people know exactly how to answer. But for your first survey the data and analysis is still impressive. Way to go!

Jeff

Why do the reported incomes surprise you? A full 1/3 or respondents have some kind of post-graduate training or schooling.

What I found most amusing was the fact that only 75% of respondents get their financial information from finance blogs. And what? A quarter of the respondents just happened to stumble across your site that day?

Lauren

What the…??

Um… no offense, I think you did a basically good job of conducting a general analysis, but wouldn’t the ultimate purpose of the survey be served better if the answers were grouped by gender? I sure would like to see how man and women differed on their answers and I hope that info will be coming…

Finn Hunaus

I’d like to see;

How women/men answered Q20, Q21, Q23 – is there a gap between how women see themselves and money vs how men see women and money?

I’m also curious how people answered “Only good debt” (Q1) answered “I have following types of debt” (Q9) (answering: What do people think good debt is?) In particular, I want see how people see student loans (answering: do people see student loans as good debt?)

Likewise, I’d be interested in seeing how the student loans were distributed among those with education and income levels. (How do the loans distribute against level of education; does the level of education significantly affect income; does income relate to the types of debt being carried.)

I’d be curious to know how often student loans were related to other types of debt (answering: how many people who have student loans also have mortgage/consumer debt/etc. suggests: student loans prevent taking on other debt?)

I’d like to see how income and “Types of debt” -> “I have no debt” correlate (answering: do high incomes mean low debt?)

I’d like to know how higher education and “Main priority” (Q5) – Personal Development were related. (suggesting: there are other factors than just money that motivate people to go to school?).

I’d like to see if “Main Priority”(Q5) – “Personal development” correlated to higher income. (suggesting: this attitude helps generate higher income)

And I’d like to see how age relates to types of debt being carried and income level (is it the older crowd that has “no debt” and the younger crowd that dominates the student loans? Is age a good predictor of income, if controlled for education? )

kmg

dittoing Rachel Popkin and Laura–there is remarkably little content on gender considering that this is described as a survey on gender and money.

cmadler

Aside from items which have already been mentioned, given the age breakdown of respondents (11% over age 38), I though it was interesting that 25% plan to rely on Social Security for retirement.

eROCK

I’ll second TT’s thoughts on Slide 10 (salary negotiation). While I have negotiated my salary in both my post-college careers, I still don’t feel comfortable doing so and I always feel like I under-negotiate.

rob rubin

I’ll update the slides to reflect responses by gender.

Sput

In addition to ditto-ing the breakout by gender that others have mentioned, what about breaking it out by age? Do people in their 20s answer differently than those in their 40s?

Kibrika

I’m wondering wether there were some interesting comments on the “other” responses:)
Also, I feel that both women and men are discouraged from talking about money – how was I to answer that tricky question about women being discouraged? “Yes they are, as are men too” or “no, they aren’t any more than men are”?

sarah

I’d be interested in comparing income and education levels with the answers given in the charity question and the financial priorities question.

It kind of astounds me that 30% of the respondents donate neither time nor money to charity. That’s over 300 people! Just imagine if those people all gave $10 to something today. $3000 is a lot of money! Or if all of those people donated blood? The Research group Independent Sector calculates that 1 volunteer hour is worth $18.77, as of 2006. (source) If those 300 people volunteered for 4 hours this month (one half-Saturday), that would be $22,524 in time donated.

Sorry if I seem pushy, but volunteering and charity is important! Maybe you need to write an article about it, Ramit.

Whitney

What jumps out at me? Either you have a very, VERY savvy readership or a WHOLE LOT of people are LYING.

guinness416

The incomes indicated (and I’m also on the highest end for both personal and household) seem to bear out what I’ve often noticed in your comments – a lot of readers who aren’t the college-age wannabe-entrepreneurs you might assume – fully 70% of us are older than 25, apparently. But also, aren’t colleges heading back at the moment? Maybe that keeps the students off the site right now.

I’d also be interested in seeing the results by gender. I’m certainly one woman whose peers are very financially savvy women, the “CFOs” of their households more often than not.

Teeves

Hey, Rob, thanks for volunteering your time to sort through the data. I’m sure everyone else here appreciates it as well.

Minimum Wage

I suspect the 4% who feel overwhelmed and the 4$ who feel depressed are nearly identical groups. I also suspect that the union of the two groups comprises a very interesting group.

Nicole

RE: salary negotiation – I thought that was a stupid question, honestly. I’m a stay at home mom. Nope, I never negotiate my income. It would be pointless. And this is something that bothered me about this survey altogether – you have to have your own personal income in order to want to do more with your money?

Don Luis

This is really super cool stuff. Congrats on this achievement.

First thing I’d do is add the Medians to all the demographics. Simply gives you a more tangible number for each parameter to work with, especially when you want to compare your numbers against other research.

A few comments:
> Q14 (slide 20): wow, Robert Kyosaki couldn’t agree more with this slide, if it weren’t for his “rich dad” that wasn’t actually his biological dad. No wonder, wealth, in general just grows gradually throughout generations. We seem to be copying what our parents did (or avoid what they did wrong)
> Q16 (slide 22): amazing to see that even for a rather young audience retirement seems to be the #1 priority. Yeah, nobody really wants to work through their 67th birthday

Some more analytical questions:
- what is the correlation between “have no debt” (slide 7) and the answers from slide 9 (problems budgeting)?
- what are the socio-demos of the group answering “family” on slide 11?
- Do the answer for slide 19 (interesting topics) change significantly with demographics (e.g. HHI, debt, age, education)

Thanks and keep up the great Blog work!

Andrea

Keep up the great work! I love your blog.

I’m also a stay at home mom so I do not draw a traditional salary so that can skew that portion of the survey as well. Plus- maybe several stay at home moms filled out the survey as they have more time than others- or more students filled out the survey due to having more time. Just pointing out other factors in play…

Molly

styleosophy: I thought the question about if we thought women were expected to purchase make-up, purses, clothes, etc. was a good one to ask. I don’t think Ramit asked because he was suggesting that women have to do these things. The reality is that a lot of women feel that they need to do those things in order to be successful in business. When there are already salary disparities between men and women, more out-of-pocket expenses for women widens the gap even further. It also means that those women have less money to invest because it is being spent on make-up, purses, clothes, etc. If those things are actually somewhat necessary for many woman to be successful in business, it impacts their ability to truly be empowered with their own personal finances.

As a female entrepreneur, I have found that engaging in those “trappings” of femininity (ie: make-up, dresses, purses, heels, etc), has made a difference in how successful I am able to be with my business. It impacts how seriously I’m taken by other business people (both men and women). It may have more to do with the confidence I have when I know I look “the part” of a successful business owner, but regardless of WHY it makes a difference, it definitely makes one. One of the distinct advantages of being a business owner, however, is that I get to take some of those “trappings” as write-offs.

At the other end of the spectrum is my partner (life-partner, not business-partner), who is a butch lesbian. She doesn’t wear make-up, dresses or carry a purse, and she’s very successful in her field. If she presented in more traditionally feminine ways, she would probably look like she was in some bizarre kind of drag show. I don’t think that being female necessarily requires one to look traditionally “feminine” in order to be successful in business, but I do think that this is a consideration for many women. I think that I am more of the “norm” than my partner is with regards to the question Ramit had on the survey regarding this issue, and I think it was a very relevant one to ask on a survey about gender and money.

styleosophy

molly: taken from your perspective, you have given question #26 a different meaning to me…thank you. And I like your blog!