This Number Could Help Predict Your Happiness Later In Life

Flickr / John Coley

According to one financial expert, how happy you'll be after you stop working isn't just about how much money you have.

It's based on how much money you have in relation to how much you need.

Wes Moss, the chief investment strategist at Capital Investment Advisors and host of "Money Matters," interviewed over 1,300 retirees in 46 states.

He details the findings of his survey in his book, "You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think: The 5 Money Secrets Of Happy Retirees," where he writes his observations of the happiest retirees, from how they think to what they drive.

From all of that research, he came up with a ratio that he finds could help predict your financial security, and by extension, your happiness, in retirement. It's called the Rich Ratio.

It's pretty simple. To figure out yours, you just need to determine:

1. How much money you'll have. This number should be your monthly income, including any income streams supplementing your savings, such as Social Security, a pension, or rental income.

2. How much money you'll  need. This number should be your monthly expenses. Don't just guess! How much will your living expenses, groceries, transportation, entertainment, and even medical costs set you back? If you currently keep a budget, that's a great place to start sourcing these numbers and modifying them for your planned retirement lifestyle.

Then, divide the first number (how much money you'll have) by the second (how much money you'll need) to come up with your Rich Ratio. For example, $2,400 income divided by   $2,000 expenses equals a Rich Ratio of 1.2.

It isn't revolutionary, but it does boil down your financial security into a single number. "Any ratio over one is fantastic," writes Moss. "Any ratio below that, well — let's just say you have some work to do."

How Framing Affects Investment Decisions & Outcomes

We display risk-aversion when we are offered a choice in one setting and then turn into risk-seekers when we are offered the same choice in a different setting. We tend to ignore the common components of a problem and concentrate on each part in isolation.” – Peter Bernstein
Let’s say you were given fifty-fifty odds of either winning $8 or $32. Not a bad deal, but let’s also assume you were given a fifty-fifty chance of losing either $8 or $32.
You would think that either way you would feel pretty good about either option in the first set of odds and pretty bad about losing money in the second set of odds. Yet when this study was actually performed that’s not what happened at all.
The subjects actually felt slightly positive when they lost $8 because they avoided losing $32. But when they won $8 they reported a feeling of dissatisfaction because they didn’t win $32. They felt good about losing $8 because the gamble was framed in terms of losses and they felt bad about winning $8 because the gamble was framed in terms of gains.
This is what behavioral economists call framing. Framing refers to the fact that we tend to draw different conclusions from information depending on how it’s presented to us.

Another example comes from a research study that shows how doctors can actually change their patient’s mind about a surgical procedure based on how they frame their diagnosis recommendation. Patient decisions were much different when the doctor said “you have a 90% chance of survival” versus “you have a 10% chance of mortality.”

More patients opted in for the surgery when it was framed in terms of survival while more opted out when presented with the mortality option. It’s the same exact odds but just presented using a different point of view.
Framing occurs frequently in the financial markets because it’s the ultimate playground for gains and losses. We constantly see comparisons of market and economic data today versus those in the peak years or those in the trough years. Morgan Housel had a perfect take on this type of framing:

Samsung pushes ahead with group-wide restructuring

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Samsung Group is to merge its shipbuilding and engineering units in its latest restructuring as the South Korean conglomerate prepares to transfer power to the next generation of its founding family.

Group-wide restructuring has accelerated in recent months as the conglomerate readies for a leadership change with Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Electronics and de facto leader of the broader group, remaining in hospital after suffering a severe heart attack on May 10.

Obama: 'Revving' economy calls for higher wages

President Barack Obama renewed his push for Congress to raise the minimum wage Monday in a buoyant accounting of the economy's "revving" performance, delivered on behalf of Democrats opening their fall campaigns for the midterm congressional elections.

"America deserves a raise," he told a union crowd in Milwaukee, vowing to keep a hard sell on Congress in much the way he once courted his wife. "I just wore her down," he cracked.
Timing his push to Labor Day, the traditional start of the autumn campaign, Obama aggressively drew attention to recent economic gains, setting aside past caution on that subject.
"By almost every measure the American economy and American workers are better off than when I took office," he said, rattling off a string of improving economic indicators even while acknowledging not all people are benefiting. "The engines," he said, "are revving a little louder."
It was, at least indirectly, a pep talk for Democrats facing tough races in a nation still gripped with economic anxieties.
The emphasis on the minimum wage is designed to draw campaign contrasts with Republicans, many of whom maintain that an increase would hurt small businesses and slow down hiring. No one expects Congress to act on it before the November elections.

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President Obama hugs Chris Harris, Vice President of United Steel Workers Local 2-209, after being i …

Despite the absence of a federal increase, 13 states raised their minimum wages at the beginning of this year. Those states have added jobs at a faster pace than those that did not raise the wage, providing a counterpoint to a Congressional Budget Office report earlier this year that projected that a higher minimum wage of $10.10 an hour could cost the nation 500,000 jobs.
Until now, Obama and his White House aides had been reluctant to draw too much attention to positive economic trends, worried that some may prove illusory or that, even if they hold, many working Americans continue to live on the edge of poverty and take no comfort in the upswing.
But in Milwaukee, Obama dared to say of the job picture, "We're on a streak."

White House aides still insist they are not declaring full victory over the lingering effects of a recession that ended five years ago.

15 very affordable metros, where less than 15% of income buys a house

The financial rule of thumb is well known by now: No more than 36 percent of your income should go toward paying debts, and of that, no more than 28 percent of your income should go toward mortgage or rent expenses.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, just 11.2% of the median income is needed to afford the purchase of a median …

For the beaten-down residents of the nation's least affordable housing markets -- including your friends here at California-based Yahoo Homes -- that can seem almost laughable. During the 15 years before the housing bubble started inflating (1985 to 1999), a Los Angeles homeowner earning the local median income needed to devote more than 35 percent of that paycheck to mortgage expenses just to afford a median-priced home in the area. And right now? That figure is a staggering 43 percent in L.A., and in San Francisco too.

That's why we were surprised to discover in a recent Zillow study that just 15 percent of the national median income is enough money to afford the purchase of a median-priced home. (Historically that ratio has been about 22 percent.)

Furthermore, Zillow identified 15 metro areas where even less of the local median income is plenty to buy a home.

Low mortgage rates get most of the credit for keeping for-sale homes so historically affordable, Zillow said, cautioning that those rates are expected to rise in the coming year.

Renters, meanwhile, are facing a crushing market in which 29.5 percent of their income goes to housing, compared with 25 percent before the bubble.

Rev. Ken Oyakhilome, younger brother of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome

 Rev. Anita, wife of the charismatic and ‘pastorpreneuer,’ popularly known as Pastor Chris, had filed for divorce in the UK, citing ‘adultery’ and ‘unreasonable behaviour.’ As the news made the round, it was met with disbelief by members of the Christ Embassy Church who revere Pastor Chris and were in the dark on the marital crises facing the couple.

Now the scandal may even get worse. Pastor Chris’ younger brother, known in the Church circle as Rev. Ken, was alleged to have impregnated a South African lady, name withheld, a member of the Church in Randburg, Guateng, which is the headquarters of Christ Embassy, South Africa. Rev. Ken, used to be the regional pastor of Christ Embassy in charge of South Africa until a few years when he was transferred to the branch of the church in Texas, USA.

The Nigerian Times’s sources say the romance between Rev. Ken and the member was an open secret among members of the Church in South Africa and the alleged pregnancy of the lady was said to have ruffled feathers among the top echelons of church but was hushed in order to prevent a scandal. The lady, according to sources, aborted the child with the knowledge of leaders of the church.

Like his elder brother, Rev. Ken has lived apart from his wife Pastor Ose for over ten years now. Pastor Ose used to manage the Okota, Lagos branch of the Church while her husband, Ken was the regional pastor in South Africa. The couple still lives apart today as Pastor Ose now manages the Church in South Africa while her husband, Ken is in Texas, running the church there.

Although the alleged romance between Rev Ken and the said Sister, which resulted in pregnancy, was kept a secret, the crisis in the Church involving Pastor Chris and his wife Anita, had led to many of such secrets tumbling out. Some members of the Church unhappy with happenings there had set up Facebook page, Where is Rev Anita, through which they vent their frustrations about the secrecy with which the church is run and some of the allegedly ungodly things happening there.

The Pastor "Sign fireman" Who was accused of Human Rituals by an 18 year old boy

Pastor Fireman ceremoniously got married not too long ago to this beautiful lady in Lagos sometime in 2013.
Controversial Lagos miracle Pentecostal priest, Pastor Ofuche Ukoha, popularly known as ‘Sign Fireman’ has been implicated in a ritual murder scandal involving a boy in his church who strangled a 12yrs old teenage girl while trying to obtain feces from her for ritual purposes.

With his church, Perfect Christianity Mission, receiving hordes of miracle seekers every weekend, Pastor Fireman’s church auditorium at 3-7 Ketu Close, Aguda in the Surulere area of Lagos is reportedly notorious for using badly dressed (semi-nude) girls as ushers.

The disclosure of Pastor Fireman’s involvement in the scandal was made by an 18 year old boy paraded by the police in Lagos. During the parade, the suspect said he was sent on the ritual mission by Pastor Fireman.

He said he had always dreamt of becoming rich and had approached the pastor, after few years of attending his church without his own financial miracle happening. Mr. Fireman reportedly told him the way to get his Sign for money was to get the feces of a virgin girl.

The young man said Pastor Fireman promised him a reward of N100,000 for the assignment.

The suspect narrated how he sought and killed the 12 year old girl simply named ‘Bose’, the daughter of poor woman on his street.

Confirming the incident to a reporter, Lagos Police PRO, Ngozi Braide said Pastor Fireman was arrested on Tuesday, five days after he was declared wanted by the police. She said investigation has commenced with regards to the controversial pastor’s involvement.

She also said the outcome of the investigation would soon be made public and necessary action will follow.

 

Pray To Be Enlightened

  Pray To Be Enlightened

EPHESIANS 1:18 NIV
18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,
the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

There is much we don't know.

In fact, the most spiritual among us has only glimpsed a part
of God's plan. The Apostle Paul said that he only "knew in
part."

So, with the Apostle Paul we should pray that "the eyes of our
heart may be enlightened." For ourselves, and for others, too.

If study alone was the answer, those who have studied the Bible
the most would have the most faith, and would be doing the most
exploits in God's name. Often, the opposite is true.

Thank God for scholarship, but that is not the total answer.

The Bible is a living message given by a living Author.
Fellowship with God and illumination from Him are necessary for
true understanding of the Bible.

Our prayer needs to be that of the Psalmist.

PSALM 119:18 NKJ
18 Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.

You may have wondered why you see some things clearly in the
Bible that your friends or loved ones seem blinded to.

2 CORINTHIANS 4:4 NIV
4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so
that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God.

The answer is that, somehow, our hearts and minds need opened
or illuminated by God. This is a reason, and a way, to pray for
your unsaved loved ones.

ACTS 16:14 NIV
14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia . . . The
Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

SAY THIS: Lord, open my eyes and give me understanding of all
that you have for me to know.