If you thought men''s sexual response is quite simple and their needs can be met easily, then you certainly need to revise your knowledge of the "birds and bees," for men aren''t as simple as they are made out to be.
According to Fox News, here are 10 things that you didn''t know about men and sex:
1. Trapped Sperm
Not all sperm go racing for the egg at once. Once sperm has been deposited into the vaginal canal, some of them are temporarily trapped in a semen coagulate or clot. Eventually, they are decoagulated by enzymes, which set them free to swim about a female''s reproductive system. This clotting, according to scientists, is meant to pace the release of sperm into the uterus, increasing the chance that one of these sperms will reach the egg and fertilise it.
2. Oxytocin affects males too
It is believed that oxytocin affects females during sex (and breast-feeding). But this cuddle hormone, released by both sexes during intimacy, is also found to influence males. Research from Switzerland found that oxytocin is associated with increased feelings of trust in males.
3. High testosterone = Less sex
While higher testosterone levels is typically considered a good thing for men when it comes to their sex drive, still researchers continually found that males with higher testosterone levels marry less often, are more abusive in their marriages and divorce more regularly. In fact, married men see more action than single men.
4. Death during sex has a prototype
While examining the incidence of death during sex, a 1975 study discovered a unique pattern in males: the "deceased is usually married; he is not with a spouse and in unfamiliar surroundings," and death usually occurs after "a big meal with alcohol." Another study in 1989 found further evidence supporting the extramarital sex bit. Fourteen of the 20 cases of "la mort d''amour," or coital death, happened during an affair.
5. Orgasm ... or lack of ... may prevent breast cancer in males
A study in Greece found evidence that the frequency of adult orgasms may have an impact on the incidence of breast cancer in men. In fact, it was also revealed that males with breast cancer had experienced fewer orgasms on average than men without the disease.
6. You can tell a guy''s "size" by his fingers
A University of Liverpool research cited that if a man''s ring fingers are longer than his index fingers, this means there were healthy testosterone levels in the womb. If the ring fingers are the same size or smaller than the index fingers, then the male received lower levels of testosterone, implying that one can estimate the length of his organ by the length of the ring finger.
7. Men fall in love faster than women
It''s not the women, but men, who get out of control after a glimpse of the right attractive face and fall head over heels in love immediately, claimed love researcher Dr. Helen Fisher.
8. Family affects testosterone
As a man becomes increasingly attached to his family, his testosterone level goes down, according to a 2001 Mayo Clinic study. Particularly, fathers experience a significant decline in levels of testosterone with the birth of his child, especially when he holds the baby.
9. Can a bowel movement make for bliss?
In a 2002 study, it was mentioned that a male had a history of orgasmic-like feelings after going to the bathroom. After he answered nature''s call, his body went through the rest of the male sexual response cycle. His pulse rate increased as he reached climactic state, followed by relaxation, then extreme fatigue.
10. Males like ''unusual'' sex
Men have a 20 to 1 likeliness against women to practice an "unusual" and often socially unacceptable or illegal behavior, for example exhibitionism.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The surprising benefits of frequent snacking and emotional eating
Hourly fluctuations in how much energy your body uses dictate how much food—or fuel—you need. Here's a snapshot of how your body uses energy during the day: You burn around one calorie per minute at rest. If you start to walk, that might increase to four or five calories per minute. Vigorous exercise might bounce that up to 10 or 12 calories per minute. (Keep in mind that calorie-burn figures are always estimates and vary between individuals according to body weight and other factors.)
The typical approach to balancing the energy you burn with the energy you eat is to look at your total daily energy expenditure and eat within that range. So if you burn around 2,000 calories per day and eat about that number, you will provide your body with the energy it needs (no more, no less) and your weight will remain stable.
How you eat those 2,000 calories can vary. Some people skip breakfast and may eat very little until later in the afternoon, when they eat high-calorie snacks and/or big meals. Some people, like you, nibble frequently throughout the day. Some people eat during the day and avoid eating past a certain time at night.
The body-fat factor
Theoretically, as long as the total calorie intake and expenditure are in balance, weight stays the same. However, since food doesn't just affect your body weight but also other aspects of how your body functions, it's possible that varying eating patterns may make a difference when it comes to other physiological factors such as body fat (as opposed to body weight)—and even physical performance and mental concentration.Researchers at Georgia State University compared the eating patterns of different athletes. One study, conducted by Dan Bernadot, Ph.D., found that female runners and gymnasts who went for long periods without eating—specifically, they didn't eat or snack for three hours or more—had the highest percentage of body fat. These athletes weren't overweight; they were in energy balance. But they had more body fat than those who ate at more regular intervals. And the longer they went without eating, the higher their body-fat percentage tended to be, especially if they exercised during these periods of calorie deprivation.
It's speculated that the scenario this creates—energy demands that are unmet—puts the body into a starvation or emergency state. So the body copes by drawing on even more stored energy and conserving what (if anything) comes in. Since normally available glucose is low, in addition to burning more body fat, the body converts normally unused proteins, like the amino acid alanine that's found in muscle, into glucose for energy.
So when food is in short supply and energy requirements are high, not only is muscle tissue compromised, but there is a larger insulin response when a fuel-deprived person finally does eat. This causes more calories to be stored as fat to prepare for future "famine." In addition, Bernadot's research also found that athletes with more erratic eating patterns experienced poorer performance and worse concentration than athletes who ate at more regular intervals.
How to plan how much and when you'll eat
Providing your body with a constant fuel supply by eating throughout the day helps regulate appetite. People who eat more often binge less and tend to eat smaller meals because they aren't as hungry when mealtime comes around.
Bernadot's research suggests that the best approach is to eat at regular intervals, specifically every three or four hours, and roughly matching how much you eat to how much energy you are expending during specific periods of the day.
One problem with applying this information on a practical level is that it's not easy to know how many calories you expend, nor is it always easy to know how many you eat. Generally, these researchers recommend that you avoid dropping into a caloric deficit that's greater than 300 calories, and also avoid binging or building up a surplus of more than around 300 calories.
It's not easy to calculate these guidelines to exact numbers, but here's a rough example: If you wake up at 8 a.m. and have not eaten anything since 8 p.m. the night before, you've burned about 60 calories an hour for eight hours. Therefore, you may be in a deficit of about 480 calories. (The size and time of your dinner the night before will also impact how great the caloric deficit will be when you wake up, so these are not exact figures.) Then, if you take an intense hour-long run and burn another 600 calories, you might find yourself in a deficit of more than 1,000 calories—and this may trigger the protective starvation response. But if you eat breakfast, you can avoid dipping too low.
Short of living in a lab, there's no surefire way to calculate your exact energy-balance status every hour of the day. But you can avoid creating large energy deficits or surpluses by eating small- to medium-sized snacks or meals every three or four hours during the day. And if you are going to do intense or long exercise sessions, eat more before and during to compensate. A useful book with more information is Nutrient Timing: The Future of Sports Nutrition by John Ivy, Ph.D., and Robert Portman, Ph.D.
The typical approach to balancing the energy you burn with the energy you eat is to look at your total daily energy expenditure and eat within that range. So if you burn around 2,000 calories per day and eat about that number, you will provide your body with the energy it needs (no more, no less) and your weight will remain stable.
How you eat those 2,000 calories can vary. Some people skip breakfast and may eat very little until later in the afternoon, when they eat high-calorie snacks and/or big meals. Some people, like you, nibble frequently throughout the day. Some people eat during the day and avoid eating past a certain time at night.
The body-fat factor
Theoretically, as long as the total calorie intake and expenditure are in balance, weight stays the same. However, since food doesn't just affect your body weight but also other aspects of how your body functions, it's possible that varying eating patterns may make a difference when it comes to other physiological factors such as body fat (as opposed to body weight)—and even physical performance and mental concentration.Researchers at Georgia State University compared the eating patterns of different athletes. One study, conducted by Dan Bernadot, Ph.D., found that female runners and gymnasts who went for long periods without eating—specifically, they didn't eat or snack for three hours or more—had the highest percentage of body fat. These athletes weren't overweight; they were in energy balance. But they had more body fat than those who ate at more regular intervals. And the longer they went without eating, the higher their body-fat percentage tended to be, especially if they exercised during these periods of calorie deprivation.
It's speculated that the scenario this creates—energy demands that are unmet—puts the body into a starvation or emergency state. So the body copes by drawing on even more stored energy and conserving what (if anything) comes in. Since normally available glucose is low, in addition to burning more body fat, the body converts normally unused proteins, like the amino acid alanine that's found in muscle, into glucose for energy.
So when food is in short supply and energy requirements are high, not only is muscle tissue compromised, but there is a larger insulin response when a fuel-deprived person finally does eat. This causes more calories to be stored as fat to prepare for future "famine." In addition, Bernadot's research also found that athletes with more erratic eating patterns experienced poorer performance and worse concentration than athletes who ate at more regular intervals.
How to plan how much and when you'll eat
Providing your body with a constant fuel supply by eating throughout the day helps regulate appetite. People who eat more often binge less and tend to eat smaller meals because they aren't as hungry when mealtime comes around.
Bernadot's research suggests that the best approach is to eat at regular intervals, specifically every three or four hours, and roughly matching how much you eat to how much energy you are expending during specific periods of the day.
One problem with applying this information on a practical level is that it's not easy to know how many calories you expend, nor is it always easy to know how many you eat. Generally, these researchers recommend that you avoid dropping into a caloric deficit that's greater than 300 calories, and also avoid binging or building up a surplus of more than around 300 calories.
It's not easy to calculate these guidelines to exact numbers, but here's a rough example: If you wake up at 8 a.m. and have not eaten anything since 8 p.m. the night before, you've burned about 60 calories an hour for eight hours. Therefore, you may be in a deficit of about 480 calories. (The size and time of your dinner the night before will also impact how great the caloric deficit will be when you wake up, so these are not exact figures.) Then, if you take an intense hour-long run and burn another 600 calories, you might find yourself in a deficit of more than 1,000 calories—and this may trigger the protective starvation response. But if you eat breakfast, you can avoid dipping too low.
Short of living in a lab, there's no surefire way to calculate your exact energy-balance status every hour of the day. But you can avoid creating large energy deficits or surpluses by eating small- to medium-sized snacks or meals every three or four hours during the day. And if you are going to do intense or long exercise sessions, eat more before and during to compensate. A useful book with more information is Nutrient Timing: The Future of Sports Nutrition by John Ivy, Ph.D., and Robert Portman, Ph.D.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Katharine McPhee Wants You To Look Her In The Eyes.A perfect Tease
Katharine McPhee has excellent taste in dresses. When a girl wears a nice dress like Miss Katharine’s she has no expectations of you whatsoever. All she wants is for you to look and drool. But you can’t touch. That’s a no-no. So why do women torture us with their sex appeal? Because they know they can. But the joke is on them because what they don’t know is that we know that they know they can tease us. So we, in essence, have the upper hand. The key to this madness is to continue to act stupid, hit on them every chance you get, get hammered, make fools of ourselves and stare at their goodies whenever they give you the opportunity. This way chicks will continue to flaunt their stuff thinking that we are all just morons who can’t think of anything else. We can discuss politics, the economy, world hunger and saving the environment in our private lunchrooms. As long as we act like Homer Simpson’s much dumber brother when we are in public we’ll be just fine and girls will continue to wear dresses like Katharine’s. And when Mr. Busy Hands comes out after you 15th cocktail, you will get away with much more because chicks will assume you are as dumb as a post…
Modest millionaires on a budget by Erin Burt for Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
Some of today's young and prosperous focus more on giving than on spending. Here are 3 rules you can learn from them -- and live by -- even if you don't have their fortunes
Rik Wehbring, in his late 30s, lives on $50,000 a year in San Francisco.
That's quite a feat in itself, considering the Bay Area has one of the highest costs of living in the country. However, that's not what makes his situation so impressive: Wehbring is a millionaire.
I read about Wehbring in a recent Associated Press article. He's frugal by choice. He doesn't own a TV, drives a gas-thrifty Toyota Prius and listens to music on his $20 MP3 player. In the AP story, he states matter-of-factly, "I don't need a lot of material possessions."
Modesty rules Wehbring, a dot-com millionaire who made his wealth working for several Internet startups, isn't alone. In this era of conspicuous consumption, he and other people like him are saying, "No, thanks," opting instead for a more reasonable lifestyle. The Sunday Telegraph of London has given this demographic a name: YAWNs, for young and wealthy but normal.
How refreshing! Twenty- and 30-something adults who don't believe that just because they've got it they've gotta flaunt it. Think of them as the anti-Paris Hilton.
Talk back: Do you hope to become a millionaire?
For public entertainment value, this group elicits, well, yawns. These folks prefer to live quietly outside the spotlight (Wehbring declined my request for an interview). They use their money for good causes instead of for their own glory. Many are also environmentally conscious. They eschew excess and embrace modesty.
The idea of being wealthy, frugal and socially aware certainly isn't new. Take investing mogul Warren Buffett, for example. The 77-year-old is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth estimated around $60 billion. Yet this is a man who lives in the same modest house he bought 50 years ago in Omaha, Neb., for $31,500. He's also giving the bulk of his wealth to charity. Or consider Bill Gates, 52, who dresses like a research student and also gives away most of his money.
Today's crop of young and wealthy normals is particularly inspiring, though, because those of us in our 20s and 30s are generally known for being materialistic and irresponsible with money. We're obsessed with wealth, luxury and ourselves. So if these millionaires think they need to be mindful of their money, shouldn't we?
Financial values We can all learn something from the YAWN philosophy, even if we're missing the "wealthy" part now. In fact, adjusting your money mind-set may actually be your ticket to getting that "W." Here are three tenets to live by, no matter your financial status:
Live below your means. In other words, don't spend money you don't have. This sounds like a no-brainer, yet many of us have a hard time putting it into practice, no matter how much money we have. (Remember Mike Tyson's infamous multimillion-dollar bankruptcy?)
Be a good steward of your money. Don't rely on credit cards, and invest wisely. The wealthy know that it's much better to earn interest for themselves than to pay interest to someone else. That's the key to getting ahead and staying there. Creating a budget can help you get your finances on track. It'll allow you see where your money is going and how you can manage your expenses to live within your income.
Remember that stuff does not define self-worth. It's cliché but true. Money can't buy you love or happiness.
I suspect that YAWNs, like anyone else, find fulfillment in personal relationships and social causes because those are things that last. Why waste time, energy and money trying to impress other people with designer clothes, fancy cars and palatial mansions? Those are merely distractions. It's the things that money cannot buy that best define your life.
Ray Sidney, 38, a former software engineer at Google, made bank when the company went public in 2004. Instead of living it up, he quietly retired to Stateline, Nev. He says he probably doesn't qualify as frugal -- he owns two planes to shuttle between home and the Bay Area -- "but I could certainly live a more fancy-pants life than I do."
With his means, there's a lot of temptation to buy, buy, buy. But the habits he learned years ago as a strapped student are well-ingrained. "I only buy things I know I'll use," he says. "Why buy something to just sit there and take up space?"
Give back. Many young adults aspire to leave the world a better place than they found it. And those with considerable wealth are having an awakening.
"You start to realize: What's the point of spending money when you can think of so many better ways to use it?" says Sidney, who has helped fund a high school football field and helped pay for a local arts center, among other donations. With his latest pet project, he's aiming to do something for Mother Earth: He's building an affordable, eco-friendly housing development in Nevada.
Feeling generous but strapped for cash? You may not have the bankroll of millionaires, but you have just as much time in a day as they do. Give of yourself if not of your wallet. (See "A dozen creative donations" for more no- or low-cash ways you can give to charity.)
Whatever your financial situation, being charitable and socially conscious can be rewarding -- not to mention that it's good karma.
I like how Knight Kiplinger, the editor-in-chief of Kipinger.com, puts it: "Your own financial security depends far more than you may think on the financial, physical and spiritual health of others in your community, our nation, our world. When you share your good fortune by donating your money, time and talent to charity, you help create a stronger economy and a healthier, safer world."
More from MSN Money and Kiplinger
Young adults all but ignore 401(k)s, IRAs
The best cities for your future
Little luxuries that cost big
The quarter-life retirement plan
12 steps to become a millionaire
Turn $451 a month into a million bucks
Rik Wehbring, in his late 30s, lives on $50,000 a year in San Francisco.
That's quite a feat in itself, considering the Bay Area has one of the highest costs of living in the country. However, that's not what makes his situation so impressive: Wehbring is a millionaire.
I read about Wehbring in a recent Associated Press article. He's frugal by choice. He doesn't own a TV, drives a gas-thrifty Toyota Prius and listens to music on his $20 MP3 player. In the AP story, he states matter-of-factly, "I don't need a lot of material possessions."
Modesty rules Wehbring, a dot-com millionaire who made his wealth working for several Internet startups, isn't alone. In this era of conspicuous consumption, he and other people like him are saying, "No, thanks," opting instead for a more reasonable lifestyle. The Sunday Telegraph of London has given this demographic a name: YAWNs, for young and wealthy but normal.
How refreshing! Twenty- and 30-something adults who don't believe that just because they've got it they've gotta flaunt it. Think of them as the anti-Paris Hilton.
Talk back: Do you hope to become a millionaire?
For public entertainment value, this group elicits, well, yawns. These folks prefer to live quietly outside the spotlight (Wehbring declined my request for an interview). They use their money for good causes instead of for their own glory. Many are also environmentally conscious. They eschew excess and embrace modesty.
The idea of being wealthy, frugal and socially aware certainly isn't new. Take investing mogul Warren Buffett, for example. The 77-year-old is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth estimated around $60 billion. Yet this is a man who lives in the same modest house he bought 50 years ago in Omaha, Neb., for $31,500. He's also giving the bulk of his wealth to charity. Or consider Bill Gates, 52, who dresses like a research student and also gives away most of his money.
Today's crop of young and wealthy normals is particularly inspiring, though, because those of us in our 20s and 30s are generally known for being materialistic and irresponsible with money. We're obsessed with wealth, luxury and ourselves. So if these millionaires think they need to be mindful of their money, shouldn't we?
Financial values We can all learn something from the YAWN philosophy, even if we're missing the "wealthy" part now. In fact, adjusting your money mind-set may actually be your ticket to getting that "W." Here are three tenets to live by, no matter your financial status:
Live below your means. In other words, don't spend money you don't have. This sounds like a no-brainer, yet many of us have a hard time putting it into practice, no matter how much money we have. (Remember Mike Tyson's infamous multimillion-dollar bankruptcy?)
Be a good steward of your money. Don't rely on credit cards, and invest wisely. The wealthy know that it's much better to earn interest for themselves than to pay interest to someone else. That's the key to getting ahead and staying there. Creating a budget can help you get your finances on track. It'll allow you see where your money is going and how you can manage your expenses to live within your income.
Remember that stuff does not define self-worth. It's cliché but true. Money can't buy you love or happiness.
I suspect that YAWNs, like anyone else, find fulfillment in personal relationships and social causes because those are things that last. Why waste time, energy and money trying to impress other people with designer clothes, fancy cars and palatial mansions? Those are merely distractions. It's the things that money cannot buy that best define your life.
Ray Sidney, 38, a former software engineer at Google, made bank when the company went public in 2004. Instead of living it up, he quietly retired to Stateline, Nev. He says he probably doesn't qualify as frugal -- he owns two planes to shuttle between home and the Bay Area -- "but I could certainly live a more fancy-pants life than I do."
With his means, there's a lot of temptation to buy, buy, buy. But the habits he learned years ago as a strapped student are well-ingrained. "I only buy things I know I'll use," he says. "Why buy something to just sit there and take up space?"
Give back. Many young adults aspire to leave the world a better place than they found it. And those with considerable wealth are having an awakening.
"You start to realize: What's the point of spending money when you can think of so many better ways to use it?" says Sidney, who has helped fund a high school football field and helped pay for a local arts center, among other donations. With his latest pet project, he's aiming to do something for Mother Earth: He's building an affordable, eco-friendly housing development in Nevada.
Feeling generous but strapped for cash? You may not have the bankroll of millionaires, but you have just as much time in a day as they do. Give of yourself if not of your wallet. (See "A dozen creative donations" for more no- or low-cash ways you can give to charity.)
Whatever your financial situation, being charitable and socially conscious can be rewarding -- not to mention that it's good karma.
I like how Knight Kiplinger, the editor-in-chief of Kipinger.com, puts it: "Your own financial security depends far more than you may think on the financial, physical and spiritual health of others in your community, our nation, our world. When you share your good fortune by donating your money, time and talent to charity, you help create a stronger economy and a healthier, safer world."
More from MSN Money and Kiplinger
Young adults all but ignore 401(k)s, IRAs
The best cities for your future
Little luxuries that cost big
The quarter-life retirement plan
12 steps to become a millionaire
Turn $451 a month into a million bucks
7 ways to buy happiness By MP Dunleavey
Whether it's lending seed money, taking in a pet, buying a greenhouse or trading a high salary for a better quality of life, our readers know when parting with dollars makes soul-satisfying sense
Does your money make you happy?
The team here at Women in Red headquarters has launched the 2007 Happiness Challenge -- a live, interactive contest and somewhat unscientific field experiment -- to find out how you can use your money to buy more happiness.
This month, people were asked to submit stories describing how they had spent their money in a way that made them very happy.
The only caveat was that we asked people to focus on things that had brought them lasting joy or satisfaction, as opposed to the short-lived thrill of splurging at the mall. That's because as much as I love to shop -- and I suspect I'm not alone -- economists have yet to find a connection between sales at Best Buy and true happiness.
In fact, a lifestyle based on constant consumption probably won't make you happy, says Christopher Hsee, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
Hsee says that when we spend money on certain material goods or status items, there is ''no natural stopping point.'' There will always be a bigger house, a fancier car, a more expensive watch to go after.
When it comes to "intrinsic needs," as Hsee calls them -- including food, rest, relationships, health -- most people can naturally reach a point of satisfaction. Thus, spending more on quality of life, as opposed to stuff, appears to be a better investment.
Indeed, when people submitted their stories about how they had spent money on something that made them happy, those intrinsic values carried the day.
We ended up with seven winners in as many categories. But I want you to think of these folks not as winners but as front-runners, whose stories are excellent examples of how money can bring happiness.. Pursue growth One popular source of satisfaction can be thought of as investing in yourself.
After getting out of the military a few months ago, Monica Rivera found herself stuck in a job as a store manager. So she decided to invest $193.50, plus $96 for books, on an online class toward getting her college degree.
"I used to hate school and never realized how exhilarating it would be to turn in assignments," says Rivera, who lives in Omaha, Neb. "I know this is the beginning of a great thing, as well as a lot of expenses, but I'm looking forward to putting more time, effort and money into this one. Here's to looking toward the future!"
2. Buy back your time Spending, or surrendering, money to regain personal time is another popular investment.
Last year, Amy Weik decided it was worth giving up a raise and a promotion to have more time with her baby daughter.
Weik, who lives in the Baltimore area, decided to switch jobs -- taking a significant pay cut -- to reduce her three-hour daily commute and 12-hour-plus workdays. "What I gained was really worth the money I gave up," she says, estimating the total loss at $10,000 a year, including lost matching funds to her 401(k). "I got a life."
In addition to the sanity and the flexibility her new job provides, "I get home in time to play with my daughter and even relax a little."
The biggest payoff was when Weik and her husband learned recently that she was pregnant, "and instead of freaking out, we are only filled with joy. That is worth giving up untold amounts of money for!"
3. Don't forget 4-legged friends A striking number of people contributed remarkable stories about the joy of rescuing, fostering and adopting animals. One of my favorites:
Mary Lammé, who lives in Southern California, adopted Yaeger, an 8-year-old, 100-pound giant schnauzer who was blind. It was an investment of about $2,350 in adoption fees, vet bills and other assorted expenses during the two years he was a part of her household before he died.
"That was the best $2,350 I have spent in decades," Lammé says. Aside from the satisfaction of saving a life, she says, "over time he taught me more about life than I can probably convey."If an older, blind dog could adapt to a new owner and a new home, "how can I be scared to try something new, when I've got all my senses?" she asked.
Yaeger introduced Lammé to people in her own neighborhood and, she believes, showed her that it pays to be open to life.
"I learned that jumping in with both feet sometimes brings bigger rewards than analyzing my choices to death," she says. "We miss the old guy and don't miss the money at all -- not at any rate of return over any length of time."4. Upgrade your life Several people made a case for investments, even little ones, that ended up upgrading their entire quality of life.
"I live in Wisconsin, where the winters are brutal and spring never seems to come," says Kristin Zickuhr. "So this spring I spent about $250 on a small greenhouse and $300 for a cedar deck beneath it."
Though $550 wouldn't have gotten her a weekend in the Caribbean, Zickuhr's greenhouse brought her weeks of sunshine and warmth in the late winter and early spring. "I fixed it up with secondhand benches and a bamboo chair, and spent the spring out there reading books -- sitting quietly, soaking up the light," she says.
Considering how little she spent, "it brought a lot of happiness."
5. You gain when you give Giving to others turned out to be one of the biggest ways people spent money on happiness, and it doesn't take much.
Keri P., who preferred not to give her last name, contributes just $25 at a time to Kiva.org, an organization that lends small amounts of money to help impoverished people start or maintain their livelihoods. "I've helped people to buy rice to plant and flowers to grow, and I've given money for sewing machines and fabric and even cows," says Keri, who lives in Nashville, Tenn.
Kiva then pools these microloans so that specific individuals -- you can read their profiles on the Kiva Web site -- can accomplish their goals.
"It makes me happy that I can see exactly where my 'charity' is going," she says, adding that as people pay off their microloans, she reinvests the money in the next person. "I have a portfolio of people I've loaned to. It's almost like you know them personally."
6. Invest in bonds Another rewarding way to invest your money is in folks you love.
Several years ago, Rhodora Bustos borrowed $1,200 for plane tickets to get herself and her two young daughters out of a violent relationship. She then lived with family members while she saved money to get back on her feet, buy a car and make a down payment on a condo."There were many years there where I sacrificed, swallowed pride and started to live again, after that mind-numbing hell," says Bustos, who lives in San Joaquin, Calif. "I know that I bought myself freedom; I bought my family a good future and happiness that is immeasurable."
7. Invest in financial security There was one contributor who declined to give her real name, but I would be remiss if I didn't include her smart happiness investment -- in her own long-term financial security.
By taking profits from the sale of her house in 2005, she was able to make a 45% down payment on a condo last year, which slashed her housing costs. Even better, by lowering her overhead she has been able to redouble her savings efforts, maxing out her 401(k) and Roth IRA contributions, and socking away $20,000 in an emergency fund.
Some might argue that she would have been better off making a lower down payment and investing the difference, but sometimes the right thing to do is doing what feels right to you.
The Happiness Challenge continues What I like about that last story is that it highlights the point of this Happiness Challenge.
It's so easy to drift through life, thinking of money as a merely financial matter -- and happiness as an emotional one. What these stories demonstrate is that the two are connected, that how you spend can change your life for the better.Aside from the obvious emotional impact of putting your money where your happiness lies, is there a financial benefit, as well, when you spend less on stuff and more on life?
'Money Can Buy Happiness'
MSN Money's MP Dunleavey punctures myths about personal finance in her book "Money Can Buy Happiness: How to Spend to Get the Life You Want." Dunleavey shows readers how to abandon empty spending and make more satisfying investments. Visit her Web site to find out more.
Does your money make you happy?
The team here at Women in Red headquarters has launched the 2007 Happiness Challenge -- a live, interactive contest and somewhat unscientific field experiment -- to find out how you can use your money to buy more happiness.
This month, people were asked to submit stories describing how they had spent their money in a way that made them very happy.
The only caveat was that we asked people to focus on things that had brought them lasting joy or satisfaction, as opposed to the short-lived thrill of splurging at the mall. That's because as much as I love to shop -- and I suspect I'm not alone -- economists have yet to find a connection between sales at Best Buy and true happiness.
In fact, a lifestyle based on constant consumption probably won't make you happy, says Christopher Hsee, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
Hsee says that when we spend money on certain material goods or status items, there is ''no natural stopping point.'' There will always be a bigger house, a fancier car, a more expensive watch to go after.
When it comes to "intrinsic needs," as Hsee calls them -- including food, rest, relationships, health -- most people can naturally reach a point of satisfaction. Thus, spending more on quality of life, as opposed to stuff, appears to be a better investment.
Indeed, when people submitted their stories about how they had spent money on something that made them happy, those intrinsic values carried the day.
We ended up with seven winners in as many categories. But I want you to think of these folks not as winners but as front-runners, whose stories are excellent examples of how money can bring happiness.. Pursue growth One popular source of satisfaction can be thought of as investing in yourself.
After getting out of the military a few months ago, Monica Rivera found herself stuck in a job as a store manager. So she decided to invest $193.50, plus $96 for books, on an online class toward getting her college degree.
"I used to hate school and never realized how exhilarating it would be to turn in assignments," says Rivera, who lives in Omaha, Neb. "I know this is the beginning of a great thing, as well as a lot of expenses, but I'm looking forward to putting more time, effort and money into this one. Here's to looking toward the future!"
2. Buy back your time Spending, or surrendering, money to regain personal time is another popular investment.
Last year, Amy Weik decided it was worth giving up a raise and a promotion to have more time with her baby daughter.
Weik, who lives in the Baltimore area, decided to switch jobs -- taking a significant pay cut -- to reduce her three-hour daily commute and 12-hour-plus workdays. "What I gained was really worth the money I gave up," she says, estimating the total loss at $10,000 a year, including lost matching funds to her 401(k). "I got a life."
In addition to the sanity and the flexibility her new job provides, "I get home in time to play with my daughter and even relax a little."
The biggest payoff was when Weik and her husband learned recently that she was pregnant, "and instead of freaking out, we are only filled with joy. That is worth giving up untold amounts of money for!"
3. Don't forget 4-legged friends A striking number of people contributed remarkable stories about the joy of rescuing, fostering and adopting animals. One of my favorites:
Mary Lammé, who lives in Southern California, adopted Yaeger, an 8-year-old, 100-pound giant schnauzer who was blind. It was an investment of about $2,350 in adoption fees, vet bills and other assorted expenses during the two years he was a part of her household before he died.
"That was the best $2,350 I have spent in decades," Lammé says. Aside from the satisfaction of saving a life, she says, "over time he taught me more about life than I can probably convey."If an older, blind dog could adapt to a new owner and a new home, "how can I be scared to try something new, when I've got all my senses?" she asked.
Yaeger introduced Lammé to people in her own neighborhood and, she believes, showed her that it pays to be open to life.
"I learned that jumping in with both feet sometimes brings bigger rewards than analyzing my choices to death," she says. "We miss the old guy and don't miss the money at all -- not at any rate of return over any length of time."4. Upgrade your life Several people made a case for investments, even little ones, that ended up upgrading their entire quality of life.
"I live in Wisconsin, where the winters are brutal and spring never seems to come," says Kristin Zickuhr. "So this spring I spent about $250 on a small greenhouse and $300 for a cedar deck beneath it."
Though $550 wouldn't have gotten her a weekend in the Caribbean, Zickuhr's greenhouse brought her weeks of sunshine and warmth in the late winter and early spring. "I fixed it up with secondhand benches and a bamboo chair, and spent the spring out there reading books -- sitting quietly, soaking up the light," she says.
Considering how little she spent, "it brought a lot of happiness."
5. You gain when you give Giving to others turned out to be one of the biggest ways people spent money on happiness, and it doesn't take much.
Keri P., who preferred not to give her last name, contributes just $25 at a time to Kiva.org, an organization that lends small amounts of money to help impoverished people start or maintain their livelihoods. "I've helped people to buy rice to plant and flowers to grow, and I've given money for sewing machines and fabric and even cows," says Keri, who lives in Nashville, Tenn.
Kiva then pools these microloans so that specific individuals -- you can read their profiles on the Kiva Web site -- can accomplish their goals.
"It makes me happy that I can see exactly where my 'charity' is going," she says, adding that as people pay off their microloans, she reinvests the money in the next person. "I have a portfolio of people I've loaned to. It's almost like you know them personally."
6. Invest in bonds Another rewarding way to invest your money is in folks you love.
Several years ago, Rhodora Bustos borrowed $1,200 for plane tickets to get herself and her two young daughters out of a violent relationship. She then lived with family members while she saved money to get back on her feet, buy a car and make a down payment on a condo."There were many years there where I sacrificed, swallowed pride and started to live again, after that mind-numbing hell," says Bustos, who lives in San Joaquin, Calif. "I know that I bought myself freedom; I bought my family a good future and happiness that is immeasurable."
7. Invest in financial security There was one contributor who declined to give her real name, but I would be remiss if I didn't include her smart happiness investment -- in her own long-term financial security.
By taking profits from the sale of her house in 2005, she was able to make a 45% down payment on a condo last year, which slashed her housing costs. Even better, by lowering her overhead she has been able to redouble her savings efforts, maxing out her 401(k) and Roth IRA contributions, and socking away $20,000 in an emergency fund.
Some might argue that she would have been better off making a lower down payment and investing the difference, but sometimes the right thing to do is doing what feels right to you.
The Happiness Challenge continues What I like about that last story is that it highlights the point of this Happiness Challenge.
It's so easy to drift through life, thinking of money as a merely financial matter -- and happiness as an emotional one. What these stories demonstrate is that the two are connected, that how you spend can change your life for the better.Aside from the obvious emotional impact of putting your money where your happiness lies, is there a financial benefit, as well, when you spend less on stuff and more on life?
'Money Can Buy Happiness'
MSN Money's MP Dunleavey punctures myths about personal finance in her book "Money Can Buy Happiness: How to Spend to Get the Life You Want." Dunleavey shows readers how to abandon empty spending and make more satisfying investments. Visit her Web site to find out more.
From homeless drug user to millionaire
As a teen, Bob Williamson 'got all hung up in drugs and all that nonsense.' Decades of hard work later, his company has 173 employees and sales of $26 million a year
When Bob Williamson left home at 17, he lived on the streets and did time for heroin possession. But he pulled himself together, got a job and eventually began his own business as a manufacturer of art supplies.
In 1993, Williamson started a company to develop software for cafeterias. Horizon Software International today supplies more than 15,000 schools, colleges and universities, and has annual sales of $26 million. Meal payments are made online, and parents can monitor what their kids eat at school.
Horizon, based in Atlanta, also sells to hospitals, retirement communities, big corporations and, soon, U.S. military bases around the globe -- "wherever," Williamson says, "large numbers of people need to be fed."
Williamson, 61, recently told his story to Inc.com's Andrew Park:
My childhood was tough. My father was in the Air Force. We moved around a lot. When I graduated from high school, I got all hung up in drugs and all that nonsense. I slept on the side of the road; I stayed in missions; I didn't have anything to eat. I fought a lot. I was in jail lots and lots of times.
I had been told all my life that I was worthless and would never amount to anything. I hitchhiked from New Orleans to Atlanta. I had only one change of clothes, and I didn't know anybody. My first job was cleaning mortar off bricks with a hatchet for $15 a day. Not long after that, I had a head-on collision and very nearly was killed. While I was in the hospital I read the Bible and became a Christian. After that I met my wife. We've been married 37 years.
Bob Williamson hopes his food-tracking software will help kids eat smarter.
I went to work for a paint company called Glidden. I had the worst job in the company: I was in charge of the label room, a caged-in area in the basement. But I was promoted eight times in two years to the point where I was managing special projects. I knew a lot of the chemists and taught myself about the chemistry of paint. In my spare time, I was a wildlife artist. There wasn't a good airbrush paint on the market. Everybody was using automotive lacquers. I spent about two years developing one for myself. I'd go to an art show and take my entire inventory. People lined up out of the door. Within about six months, I had distributors and customers all over the country.
I started Wildlife Artist Supply in 1977. I went from my basement to my garage to a little building. Then I went to a 50,000-square-foot warehouse. And I didn't just sell paint. We had a thick catalog, 6,000 or 7,000 items for artists, primarily mail order. It was everything you could imagine: brushes, compressors, clay. I started a magazine to teach people how to do wildlife art. We also founded the World Taxidermy Championships.
In 1988, I made a deal to take the company public. We were going to develop my business into a company like L.L. Bean. My customers were hard-core sportsmen. We were selling wildlife art supplies, so we could have just as easily sold them hunting and fishing stuff.
The next day, my controller turned in his notice. And then a whole bunch of other people quit. I discovered that all of our financial records had been destroyed, and we were $1 million in debt and $278,000 overdrawn at the bank, and my inventory was decimated. It was like a nightmare. I spent two years trying to make him pay. To this day, there's never been anybody but a Williamson reconciling our bank accounts.There are only so many artists in the world. I wanted to get into something that didn't have any limits. My sons were very gifted in computer technology, and they wanted to start a software company. I had a couple of programmers who worked for me. We had written all this software. The best was our warehouse and distribution package. I had been using it for years in my own stuff. We decided to try selling it. I thought it would be like the paint: I'd just go out there and introduce myself, distributors would pick it up, and I'd be home free. Well, I had a rude awakening. When those big boys are in there, they just stomp you. I realized I had to have a niche.
A rep who worked for me also sold systems to school lunchrooms. I went with him on one of his calls and found out that in the schools there wasn't a system like ours, and there was a tremendous need for it. So I modified my warehouse and distribution system so it would work in cafeterias. The market was too small to attract those big guys, but it was big enough for me. There are 14,000 districts, 97,000 schools. It was a really big opportunity. It seemed unlimited. Everybody's got to eat.
I hired salespeople, but they couldn't sell anything. I told my wife, "I might just do it myself." I had always detested sales and salespeople. But I found out that's what I'm really good at. I went in and told food-service directors how they could save money. They were doing everything manually, and I showed them all the things that our software could do. Within two weeks I had my first order. Then I went to another one, and I went to another one, and pretty soon I had all of Georgia. So I became our chief salesperson. You wouldn't believe how I could sell. I could sell firewood in hell.
Video on MSN Money
How to turn a hobby into a businessBeing your own boss and working from home is a dream for many -- and a reality for a few. One path toward that kind of life is to turn something you do for fun into something you do for a living.
It wasn't like I was real flush with cash. Pretty much all my career I was undercapitalized. I borrowed on my home equity and loaded up my credit cards. We started with three or four people, in 1993, and each year we would either double or triple in size. Now we have 173 employees and sales of $26 million.
We ended up developing an A-to-Z software system for managing school food services: warehousing and tracking inventory and sales. For a long time I didn't have any competition. I started looking at other markets. We developed software for colleges and universities and then hospitals and senior living communities. Whoever feeds a lot of people, that's who we go to. We have more than 15,000 installations.
In 2005, we got a $10 million deal with the U.S. military. I worked five years on that deal. Our technology will be in every dining facility worldwide for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Every land base, ship, submarine and remote battlefield.
It's my goal to get junk food out of the schools. Oranges instead of Snickers bars. We've developed technology so kids can buy healthful items from vending machines on their prepaid accounts. And we have software so parents can go online and view what their kids ate that day. I want to help kids make the right nutritional choices. We've got all this technology and all these schools, and we ought to be able to have an impact.
When Bob Williamson left home at 17, he lived on the streets and did time for heroin possession. But he pulled himself together, got a job and eventually began his own business as a manufacturer of art supplies.
In 1993, Williamson started a company to develop software for cafeterias. Horizon Software International today supplies more than 15,000 schools, colleges and universities, and has annual sales of $26 million. Meal payments are made online, and parents can monitor what their kids eat at school.
Horizon, based in Atlanta, also sells to hospitals, retirement communities, big corporations and, soon, U.S. military bases around the globe -- "wherever," Williamson says, "large numbers of people need to be fed."
Williamson, 61, recently told his story to Inc.com's Andrew Park:
My childhood was tough. My father was in the Air Force. We moved around a lot. When I graduated from high school, I got all hung up in drugs and all that nonsense. I slept on the side of the road; I stayed in missions; I didn't have anything to eat. I fought a lot. I was in jail lots and lots of times.
I had been told all my life that I was worthless and would never amount to anything. I hitchhiked from New Orleans to Atlanta. I had only one change of clothes, and I didn't know anybody. My first job was cleaning mortar off bricks with a hatchet for $15 a day. Not long after that, I had a head-on collision and very nearly was killed. While I was in the hospital I read the Bible and became a Christian. After that I met my wife. We've been married 37 years.
Bob Williamson hopes his food-tracking software will help kids eat smarter.
I went to work for a paint company called Glidden. I had the worst job in the company: I was in charge of the label room, a caged-in area in the basement. But I was promoted eight times in two years to the point where I was managing special projects. I knew a lot of the chemists and taught myself about the chemistry of paint. In my spare time, I was a wildlife artist. There wasn't a good airbrush paint on the market. Everybody was using automotive lacquers. I spent about two years developing one for myself. I'd go to an art show and take my entire inventory. People lined up out of the door. Within about six months, I had distributors and customers all over the country.
I started Wildlife Artist Supply in 1977. I went from my basement to my garage to a little building. Then I went to a 50,000-square-foot warehouse. And I didn't just sell paint. We had a thick catalog, 6,000 or 7,000 items for artists, primarily mail order. It was everything you could imagine: brushes, compressors, clay. I started a magazine to teach people how to do wildlife art. We also founded the World Taxidermy Championships.
In 1988, I made a deal to take the company public. We were going to develop my business into a company like L.L. Bean. My customers were hard-core sportsmen. We were selling wildlife art supplies, so we could have just as easily sold them hunting and fishing stuff.
The next day, my controller turned in his notice. And then a whole bunch of other people quit. I discovered that all of our financial records had been destroyed, and we were $1 million in debt and $278,000 overdrawn at the bank, and my inventory was decimated. It was like a nightmare. I spent two years trying to make him pay. To this day, there's never been anybody but a Williamson reconciling our bank accounts.There are only so many artists in the world. I wanted to get into something that didn't have any limits. My sons were very gifted in computer technology, and they wanted to start a software company. I had a couple of programmers who worked for me. We had written all this software. The best was our warehouse and distribution package. I had been using it for years in my own stuff. We decided to try selling it. I thought it would be like the paint: I'd just go out there and introduce myself, distributors would pick it up, and I'd be home free. Well, I had a rude awakening. When those big boys are in there, they just stomp you. I realized I had to have a niche.
A rep who worked for me also sold systems to school lunchrooms. I went with him on one of his calls and found out that in the schools there wasn't a system like ours, and there was a tremendous need for it. So I modified my warehouse and distribution system so it would work in cafeterias. The market was too small to attract those big guys, but it was big enough for me. There are 14,000 districts, 97,000 schools. It was a really big opportunity. It seemed unlimited. Everybody's got to eat.
I hired salespeople, but they couldn't sell anything. I told my wife, "I might just do it myself." I had always detested sales and salespeople. But I found out that's what I'm really good at. I went in and told food-service directors how they could save money. They were doing everything manually, and I showed them all the things that our software could do. Within two weeks I had my first order. Then I went to another one, and I went to another one, and pretty soon I had all of Georgia. So I became our chief salesperson. You wouldn't believe how I could sell. I could sell firewood in hell.
Video on MSN Money
How to turn a hobby into a businessBeing your own boss and working from home is a dream for many -- and a reality for a few. One path toward that kind of life is to turn something you do for fun into something you do for a living.
It wasn't like I was real flush with cash. Pretty much all my career I was undercapitalized. I borrowed on my home equity and loaded up my credit cards. We started with three or four people, in 1993, and each year we would either double or triple in size. Now we have 173 employees and sales of $26 million.
We ended up developing an A-to-Z software system for managing school food services: warehousing and tracking inventory and sales. For a long time I didn't have any competition. I started looking at other markets. We developed software for colleges and universities and then hospitals and senior living communities. Whoever feeds a lot of people, that's who we go to. We have more than 15,000 installations.
In 2005, we got a $10 million deal with the U.S. military. I worked five years on that deal. Our technology will be in every dining facility worldwide for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Every land base, ship, submarine and remote battlefield.
It's my goal to get junk food out of the schools. Oranges instead of Snickers bars. We've developed technology so kids can buy healthful items from vending machines on their prepaid accounts. And we have software so parents can go online and view what their kids ate that day. I want to help kids make the right nutritional choices. We've got all this technology and all these schools, and we ought to be able to have an impact.
How Much Nest Egg Do You Need to Join the True Elite
THE TOOL-AND-DIE MAN figured he was retiring rich. After selling an Arizona business that he'd built up over 30 years, he retreated to a 30-acre spread on the coast of Oregon and handed a $10 million investment portfolio to a big, New York-based private-banking outfit. The bank, however, seemed less than impressed. Over three years, he says, he received nary a phone call from the reps in the local office. "There was no 'How are you doing?' or 'Maybe you should buy this' or 'How about some concert tickets in Portland?' There was nothing at all." The retiree eventually reached an inescapable conclusion: "I was considered insignificant."
Yes, it takes more than $10 million to be seen as rich these days. It takes more like $25 million. Not only is that the minimum for the red-carpet treatment at a growing number of banks, it is also, in the view of many experts, the sum needed for a truly cushy retirement, one free of financial worry.
"With $25 million, you can fund college and grad school for the kids, take care of your own parents, travel, start a backyard vineyard and, well, "do whatever you want," says Maria Elena Lagomasino, of GenSpring, which helps some 600 wealthy families manage their money. After all, if you simply stashed the $25 million in municipal bonds, you'd have tax-free income of well over $1 million a year. Exactly how much money you need to retire in a time of constantly increasing life expectancies has been a hot topic of late. The Internet is teeming with calculators to help answer the question, and some of them are quite useful. But if you want to know what you'll need to really feel rich in your golden years — rather that what you'll need to make ends meet mathematically — just take a good look around.
Thanks to a global explosion of wealth over the past 10 years or so, the number of U.S. households with $1 million to $25 million in net worth has more than doubled. Households with $500 million and up have roughly tripled. "Heck, $1 billion isn't a lot of money," says Bill Sanderson, a broker of mega yachts in Palm Beach, Fla. Even if he's a little jaded from all his dealings with zillionaires, Sanderson could be on to something: Billionaires now occupy every slot on the Forbes 400, and that list, some bankers and consultants say, may be overlooking at least 100 billionaires-next-door whose financial dealings are too private to track.
More and more rich people certainly believe they need at least $25 million. In a recent survey by Chicago-based Spectrem Group, 25% of affluent folks said it takes $25 million to be rich, and another 8% said $100 million. Those two groups combined weren't all that much smaller than the 45% who cited $5 million.
While $1 million was once a sign that you had arrived, plenty of people with up to $10 million nowadays don't think of themselves as rich. Many actually consider themselves "middle class," according to survey work by the authors of a new book, The Middle-Class Millionaire. That's increasingly true as the $10 million crowd finds a new intruder in its gated communities: the weakening economy. The delinquency rate for "jumbo" home mortgages — a category that includes loans for basic McMansions — more than doubled last year, to 0.74%, according to Fitch Ratings.
True, only a tiny portion of all Americans meet our definition of rich: Just 0.20% of households have net worths of $25 million or more. But in absolute numbers, the group is considerable. If one representative from each of the 175,400 households filed into an NFL stadium at the same time, they wouldn't all find seats. In fact, they would have to go in two shifts — and even then, some 15,000 would be left in the parking lots, tailgating in their Bentleys.
And so it is that Barron's has devised a score card for folks heading toward retirement or already there. Are you rich yet? And if so, how rich? We divided true wealth into three categories. Perhaps you fall into one of them, or aspire to. It is our fondest hope that the advice in this magazine each week — and in the story "How to Avoid the Three Big Mistakes" — helps you get there swiftly, enjoyably and enduringly.
This is entry-level rich, consisting of people with net worths of $25 million to $50 million (counting primary residences). The number of households in this group increased by a factor of four from 1998 through 2006, to 125,000, according to research by Northern Trust, a leading private bank. It bases its estimates on an analysis of net-worth surveys by the Federal Reserve.
Many people move into this group on the strengths of private family businesses (a strong initial public offering doesn't hurt). Executive-level compensation can also do the trick, along with smart investing.
Over the past 10 years, therefore, aspirants to the category have been helped by low interest rates, strong markets and rising corporate profits.
The sense of relief that comes with reaching this altitude can be extraordinary, as you leave behind a host of worries — like health-care expenses. Spiraling medical costs are a big fear even for those who can afford doctors who make penthouse calls. "It's at the top of the list" of concerns among people with $10 million, says David Thompson of Phoenix Affluent Marketing Service, a consulting outfit.
At $25 million, you can not only breathe easier but can start buying some serious toys. With petty cash, you could buy a Bentley in the $200,000 range. "People at this level don't finance," says Hugh Bate, president of Chariots of Palm Beach.
While buying a mega yacht (a vessel of at least 100 feet) could bust your budget, chartering one is entirely possible. Want to splurge? Why not head to sea for a week on the Maltese Falcon, the 289-foot, high-tech sailing machine of venture capitalist Tom Perkins. It's available for $513,000 a week.
That swanky bank account is yours for the picking, too — JPMorgan, UBS, whatever. You're at the level of wealth where most of the leading private banks will start showering you and your family with attention, including access to hot hedge funds and other exclusive investments. If for any reason you don't get the treatment you think you deserve, a host of smaller banks stand ready to help. The tool-and-die entrepreneur, who is now 66 and asked that his name not be used because he doesn't like discussing his money publicly, wound up at Chicago's Harris Private Bank, where he's thoroughly content. He says he was won over when a Harris "wealth manager" arrived for their first meeting on a motorcycle, after traveling nearly five hours from the freeway to reach the retiree's retreat.
Wine & CheeseThe air gets noticeably thinner AT $50 million to $500 million in net worth — partly because you're now flying in your own jet. "The first thing people do after arriving in this group is to resolve to never to fly commercial anymore," says Lagomasino of GenSpring. The fabled Gulfstream V, which can carry more than a dozen people and fly internationally, is yours for $20 million to $50 million, depending on your preferred level of luxe.
A penny-pinching hectomillionaire might opt instead to up his or her stake in a jet through a fractional-ownership outfit. A 50% stake in a jet through NetJets, for instance, offers 400 hours of flying a year and costs $3.3 million, plus $50,000 a month for management fees. By contrast, a minimum stake of one-sixteenth offers 50 hours of flying for $417,000, plus $7,000 for management fees.
While the range of wealth in the Wine & Cheese category — $50 million to 10 times that amount — may seem wide, the members tend to have similar goals. Philanthropy, for instance, often becomes a preoccupation, since all members of the group are likely to outlive their money by wide margins. Many launch their own family foundations to carry out customized giving. The number of family foundations stood at 34,000 at last count, up from about 28,000 in 2001.
The opportunities for home ownership become particularly intriguing for the Wine & Cheese crowd. While lesser millionaires may have a nice second home in, say, the Bahamas or Europe, people with $50 million and up might well have three or four homes. And thanks to the private jet, the homes can be in places that are difficult to reach on commercial airlines, like Sun Valley, Idaho.
Your primary residence won't be too shabby, either. In New York City, if you have $50 million in the bank, you can probably afford a $15 million cooperative apartment, says prominent socialite Alice Mason of the Alice F. Mason Ltd. real-estate brokerage.
The rule of thumb, she says, is that you can buy a home that costs about a third of your net worth, assuming you don't want too much of your fortune concentrated in your home. She believes the "true rich" of Manhattan have net worths of $100 million, allowing them to comfortably buy $30 million Park Avenue apartments with several bedrooms. Champagne & CaviarWith a net worth of $500 million or more, "You can buy whatever you want" in Manhattan real estate, says Mason. Or you can buy anywhere else. Some members of this group buy $20 million homes "all over the world," says Gary Gold, realty broker to the rich at Hilton & Highland in Los Angeles. He's been as surprised as anyone by the growing number of people who qualify for the Champagne & Caviar class. Five or 10 years ago, he says, "you'd know who they are. Now, they can have vast wealth and you don't know who they are."
Leslie Mandel, chief executive of the Rich List, a marketing company, contends there are now more than 2,000 Americans with net worths of a $1 billion or more, far more than the 400 who appear on Forbes' annual list (the cutoff for that is now $1.3 billion). Some bankers figure the number of billionaires is closer to 500, but either way, it's up remarkably from the 170 of 10 years ago.
When you hit $500 million, you can at last buy a decent mega yacht. For about $50 million — and another $5 million a year in maintenance payments — you can have a 200-foot yacht with 21-foot launches, 15 crew members and five or six staterooms, says broker Sanderson.
Like realty broker Gold, he says potential customers are getting harder to pick out of the crowd. "At one boat show, a guy in cutoff shorts and a T-shirt was one of the wealthiest guys I ever met," he says. "You never know." It goes without saying that you will travel to the mega yacht in your private jet. Surprisingly, however, your kids may be getting bored with the jet. In his 2007 book about the wealth explosion, Richistan, Wall Street Journal writer Robert Frank tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who asked her father for a ride on a commercial airline even though the family owned its own jet. "I want to ride on a big plane with other people," the girl said.
The fact is, people in the Champagne & Caviar set are so rich that their money can become a burden. Everyone from your gardener to your local opera house may know about your money and want a piece of it, suggests Lagomasino. "It's kind of sad," she says. People at this level, she says, have to ask, "Do you like me or my money?"
Many Champagne & Caviar members ratchet up their philanthropy to world-saving proportions. They can scarcely get rid of their money fast enough. Bill Gates, with a net worth of $58 billion at last count, would have to spend about $10 million a day on non-appreciating items like McDonald's Happy Meals just to hold the level of his wealth constant.
Even people at some lower levels of wealth turn philanthropy into a full-time pursuit. Take John Hunting of Grand Rapids, Mich. Now 76, he inherited $140 million when a company started by his father went public 10 years ago. He set up a new foundation for environmental causes and gave it $100 million of his fortune. A bachelor with no children, he plans to give most of the rest away, too.
"I live off my income and devote myself to philanthropy," he says.
This is not to say that america's rich have stopped spoiling themselves. They absolutely haven't. This May, for instance, all 750 seats at Christie's are expected to be full as a Mark Rothko oil painting is auctioned for an expected $30 million-plus says Marc Porter, president of Christie's Americas.
And for many members of all three groups of wealth, the term "credit crunch" means nothing. American Express offers the truly rich a Centurion card with such perks as zero-gravity flights with astronaut Buzz Aldrin. A person with $500 million in net worth could charge $10 million to the card for some gambling in Monaco. But even that card holder would first undergo a credit check. Yes, Virginia, there are deadbeat billionaires.
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Yes, it takes more than $10 million to be seen as rich these days. It takes more like $25 million. Not only is that the minimum for the red-carpet treatment at a growing number of banks, it is also, in the view of many experts, the sum needed for a truly cushy retirement, one free of financial worry.
"With $25 million, you can fund college and grad school for the kids, take care of your own parents, travel, start a backyard vineyard and, well, "do whatever you want," says Maria Elena Lagomasino, of GenSpring, which helps some 600 wealthy families manage their money. After all, if you simply stashed the $25 million in municipal bonds, you'd have tax-free income of well over $1 million a year. Exactly how much money you need to retire in a time of constantly increasing life expectancies has been a hot topic of late. The Internet is teeming with calculators to help answer the question, and some of them are quite useful. But if you want to know what you'll need to really feel rich in your golden years — rather that what you'll need to make ends meet mathematically — just take a good look around.
Thanks to a global explosion of wealth over the past 10 years or so, the number of U.S. households with $1 million to $25 million in net worth has more than doubled. Households with $500 million and up have roughly tripled. "Heck, $1 billion isn't a lot of money," says Bill Sanderson, a broker of mega yachts in Palm Beach, Fla. Even if he's a little jaded from all his dealings with zillionaires, Sanderson could be on to something: Billionaires now occupy every slot on the Forbes 400, and that list, some bankers and consultants say, may be overlooking at least 100 billionaires-next-door whose financial dealings are too private to track.
More and more rich people certainly believe they need at least $25 million. In a recent survey by Chicago-based Spectrem Group, 25% of affluent folks said it takes $25 million to be rich, and another 8% said $100 million. Those two groups combined weren't all that much smaller than the 45% who cited $5 million.
While $1 million was once a sign that you had arrived, plenty of people with up to $10 million nowadays don't think of themselves as rich. Many actually consider themselves "middle class," according to survey work by the authors of a new book, The Middle-Class Millionaire. That's increasingly true as the $10 million crowd finds a new intruder in its gated communities: the weakening economy. The delinquency rate for "jumbo" home mortgages — a category that includes loans for basic McMansions — more than doubled last year, to 0.74%, according to Fitch Ratings.
True, only a tiny portion of all Americans meet our definition of rich: Just 0.20% of households have net worths of $25 million or more. But in absolute numbers, the group is considerable. If one representative from each of the 175,400 households filed into an NFL stadium at the same time, they wouldn't all find seats. In fact, they would have to go in two shifts — and even then, some 15,000 would be left in the parking lots, tailgating in their Bentleys.
And so it is that Barron's has devised a score card for folks heading toward retirement or already there. Are you rich yet? And if so, how rich? We divided true wealth into three categories. Perhaps you fall into one of them, or aspire to. It is our fondest hope that the advice in this magazine each week — and in the story "How to Avoid the Three Big Mistakes" — helps you get there swiftly, enjoyably and enduringly.
This is entry-level rich, consisting of people with net worths of $25 million to $50 million (counting primary residences). The number of households in this group increased by a factor of four from 1998 through 2006, to 125,000, according to research by Northern Trust, a leading private bank. It bases its estimates on an analysis of net-worth surveys by the Federal Reserve.
Many people move into this group on the strengths of private family businesses (a strong initial public offering doesn't hurt). Executive-level compensation can also do the trick, along with smart investing.
Over the past 10 years, therefore, aspirants to the category have been helped by low interest rates, strong markets and rising corporate profits.
The sense of relief that comes with reaching this altitude can be extraordinary, as you leave behind a host of worries — like health-care expenses. Spiraling medical costs are a big fear even for those who can afford doctors who make penthouse calls. "It's at the top of the list" of concerns among people with $10 million, says David Thompson of Phoenix Affluent Marketing Service, a consulting outfit.
At $25 million, you can not only breathe easier but can start buying some serious toys. With petty cash, you could buy a Bentley in the $200,000 range. "People at this level don't finance," says Hugh Bate, president of Chariots of Palm Beach.
While buying a mega yacht (a vessel of at least 100 feet) could bust your budget, chartering one is entirely possible. Want to splurge? Why not head to sea for a week on the Maltese Falcon, the 289-foot, high-tech sailing machine of venture capitalist Tom Perkins. It's available for $513,000 a week.
That swanky bank account is yours for the picking, too — JPMorgan, UBS, whatever. You're at the level of wealth where most of the leading private banks will start showering you and your family with attention, including access to hot hedge funds and other exclusive investments. If for any reason you don't get the treatment you think you deserve, a host of smaller banks stand ready to help. The tool-and-die entrepreneur, who is now 66 and asked that his name not be used because he doesn't like discussing his money publicly, wound up at Chicago's Harris Private Bank, where he's thoroughly content. He says he was won over when a Harris "wealth manager" arrived for their first meeting on a motorcycle, after traveling nearly five hours from the freeway to reach the retiree's retreat.
Wine & CheeseThe air gets noticeably thinner AT $50 million to $500 million in net worth — partly because you're now flying in your own jet. "The first thing people do after arriving in this group is to resolve to never to fly commercial anymore," says Lagomasino of GenSpring. The fabled Gulfstream V, which can carry more than a dozen people and fly internationally, is yours for $20 million to $50 million, depending on your preferred level of luxe.
A penny-pinching hectomillionaire might opt instead to up his or her stake in a jet through a fractional-ownership outfit. A 50% stake in a jet through NetJets, for instance, offers 400 hours of flying a year and costs $3.3 million, plus $50,000 a month for management fees. By contrast, a minimum stake of one-sixteenth offers 50 hours of flying for $417,000, plus $7,000 for management fees.
While the range of wealth in the Wine & Cheese category — $50 million to 10 times that amount — may seem wide, the members tend to have similar goals. Philanthropy, for instance, often becomes a preoccupation, since all members of the group are likely to outlive their money by wide margins. Many launch their own family foundations to carry out customized giving. The number of family foundations stood at 34,000 at last count, up from about 28,000 in 2001.
The opportunities for home ownership become particularly intriguing for the Wine & Cheese crowd. While lesser millionaires may have a nice second home in, say, the Bahamas or Europe, people with $50 million and up might well have three or four homes. And thanks to the private jet, the homes can be in places that are difficult to reach on commercial airlines, like Sun Valley, Idaho.
Your primary residence won't be too shabby, either. In New York City, if you have $50 million in the bank, you can probably afford a $15 million cooperative apartment, says prominent socialite Alice Mason of the Alice F. Mason Ltd. real-estate brokerage.
The rule of thumb, she says, is that you can buy a home that costs about a third of your net worth, assuming you don't want too much of your fortune concentrated in your home. She believes the "true rich" of Manhattan have net worths of $100 million, allowing them to comfortably buy $30 million Park Avenue apartments with several bedrooms. Champagne & CaviarWith a net worth of $500 million or more, "You can buy whatever you want" in Manhattan real estate, says Mason. Or you can buy anywhere else. Some members of this group buy $20 million homes "all over the world," says Gary Gold, realty broker to the rich at Hilton & Highland in Los Angeles. He's been as surprised as anyone by the growing number of people who qualify for the Champagne & Caviar class. Five or 10 years ago, he says, "you'd know who they are. Now, they can have vast wealth and you don't know who they are."
Leslie Mandel, chief executive of the Rich List, a marketing company, contends there are now more than 2,000 Americans with net worths of a $1 billion or more, far more than the 400 who appear on Forbes' annual list (the cutoff for that is now $1.3 billion). Some bankers figure the number of billionaires is closer to 500, but either way, it's up remarkably from the 170 of 10 years ago.
When you hit $500 million, you can at last buy a decent mega yacht. For about $50 million — and another $5 million a year in maintenance payments — you can have a 200-foot yacht with 21-foot launches, 15 crew members and five or six staterooms, says broker Sanderson.
Like realty broker Gold, he says potential customers are getting harder to pick out of the crowd. "At one boat show, a guy in cutoff shorts and a T-shirt was one of the wealthiest guys I ever met," he says. "You never know." It goes without saying that you will travel to the mega yacht in your private jet. Surprisingly, however, your kids may be getting bored with the jet. In his 2007 book about the wealth explosion, Richistan, Wall Street Journal writer Robert Frank tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who asked her father for a ride on a commercial airline even though the family owned its own jet. "I want to ride on a big plane with other people," the girl said.
The fact is, people in the Champagne & Caviar set are so rich that their money can become a burden. Everyone from your gardener to your local opera house may know about your money and want a piece of it, suggests Lagomasino. "It's kind of sad," she says. People at this level, she says, have to ask, "Do you like me or my money?"
Many Champagne & Caviar members ratchet up their philanthropy to world-saving proportions. They can scarcely get rid of their money fast enough. Bill Gates, with a net worth of $58 billion at last count, would have to spend about $10 million a day on non-appreciating items like McDonald's Happy Meals just to hold the level of his wealth constant.
Even people at some lower levels of wealth turn philanthropy into a full-time pursuit. Take John Hunting of Grand Rapids, Mich. Now 76, he inherited $140 million when a company started by his father went public 10 years ago. He set up a new foundation for environmental causes and gave it $100 million of his fortune. A bachelor with no children, he plans to give most of the rest away, too.
"I live off my income and devote myself to philanthropy," he says.
This is not to say that america's rich have stopped spoiling themselves. They absolutely haven't. This May, for instance, all 750 seats at Christie's are expected to be full as a Mark Rothko oil painting is auctioned for an expected $30 million-plus says Marc Porter, president of Christie's Americas.
And for many members of all three groups of wealth, the term "credit crunch" means nothing. American Express offers the truly rich a Centurion card with such perks as zero-gravity flights with astronaut Buzz Aldrin. A person with $500 million in net worth could charge $10 million to the card for some gambling in Monaco. But even that card holder would first undergo a credit check. Yes, Virginia, there are deadbeat billionaires.
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Optimism and our health
Look for the silver lining…
Buddy DeSylva's upbeat lyrics to Jerome Kern's lovely tune provide an appealing call to a positive outlook on life, even in the face of adversity. Indeed, a cheerful disposition can help you get through the tough patches that cloud every life, but do people who see the glass half-full also enjoy better health than gloomy types who see it half-empty?
According to a series of studies from the U.S. and Europe, the answer is yes. Optimism helps people cope with disease and recover from surgery. Even more impressive is the impact of a positive outlook on overall health and longevity. Research tells us that an optimistic outlook early in life can predict better health and a lower rate of death during follow-up periods of 15 to 40 years.
Measuring optimism
To investigate optimism, scientists first needed to develop reliable ways to measure the trait. Two systems are in widespread use; one measures dispositional optimism, the other explanatory style.
Dispositional optimism depends on positive expectations for one's future. These are not confined to one or two aspects of life, but are generalized expectations for a good outcome in several areas. Many researchers use the 12-item Life Orientation Test to measure dispositional optimism.
Explanatory style is based on how a person explains good or bad news. The pessimist assumes blame for bad news ("It's me"), assumes the situation is stable ("It will last forever"), and has a global impact ("It will affect everything I do"). The optimist, on the other hand, does not assume blame for negative events. Instead, he tends to give himself credit for good news, assume good things will last, and be confident that positive developments will spill over into many areas of his life. Researchers often use either the Attributional Style Questionnaire or the Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations method to evaluate optimism based on explanatory style.
In some studies, researchers have concentrated on the link between optimism and specific medical conditions. DeSylva and Kern tell us that a heart full of joy and gladness can banish trouble and strife—and now scientists tell us that optimism may help the heart itself.
In one study, doctors evaluated 309 middle-aged patients who were scheduled to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery. In addition to a complete pre-operative physical exam, each patient underwent a psychological evaluation designed to measure optimism, depression, neuroticism, and self-esteem. The researchers tracked all the patients for six months after surgery. When they analyzed the data, they found that optimists were only half as likely as pessimists to require re-hospitalization. In a similar study of 298 angioplasty patients, optimism was also protective; over a six-month period, pessimists were three times more likely than optimists to have heart attacks or require repeat angioplasties or bypass operations.
Optimism and blood pressure
A sunny outlook may help people recover after a cardiac procedure, but can it also reduce the risk of developing one of the major risks for cardiovascular disease—hypertension? Research conducted in Finland suggests it can. Scientists evaluated 616 middle-aged men who had normal blood pressures when the study began. Each volunteer's mental outlook was checked with questions about his expectations for the future, and each was evaluated for cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse, and a family history of hypertension. Over a four-year period, highly pessimistic men were three times more likely to develop hypertension than cheerier souls, even after other risk factors were taken into account.
An American study of 2,564 men and women who were 65 and older also found that optimism is good for blood pressure. Researchers used a four-item, positive-emotion summary scale to evaluate each participant during a home visit. They also measured blood pressure, height, and weight and collected information about age, marital status, alcohol use, diabetes, and medication. Even after taking these other factors into account, people with positive emotions had lower blood pressures than those with a negative outlook. On average, the people with the most positive emotions had the lowest blood pressures.
Emotions and infections
A 2006 study explored the link between emotions and viral infections of the respiratory tract. Scientists evaluated the personality style of 193 healthy volunteers, then gave each a common respiratory virus. Subjects who displayed a positive personality style were less likely to develop viral symptoms than their less positive peers.
Optimism and heart disease
High blood pressure is an important cause of coronary artery disease. If optimism can reduce the risk of hypertension, can it also protect against developing coronary artery disease itself? To find out, scientists from Harvard and Boston University evaluated 1,306 men with an average age of 61. Each volunteer was evaluated for an optimistic or pessimistic explanatory style as well as for blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity, smoking, alcohol use, and family history of heart disease. None of the men had been diagnosed with coronary artery disease when the study began. Over the next 10 years, the most pessimistic men were more than twice as likely to develop heart disease than the most optimistic men, even after taking other risk factors into account.
Optimism and overall health
Optimism appears to protect the heart and circulation—and it's heartening to learn that it can have similar benefits for overall health.
A large, short-term study evaluated the link between optimism and overall health in 2,300 older adults. Over two years, people who had a positive outlook were much more likely to stay healthy and enjoy independent living than their less-cheerful peers.
Staying well for two years is one thing, remaining healthy for the long haul another. But for 447 patients who were evaluated for optimism as part of a comprehensive medical evaluation between 1962 and 1965, the benefits of a positive outlook were desirable indeed. Over a 30-year period, optimism was linked to a better outcome on 8 measures of physical and mental function and health.
A laughable study
Experienced clinicians know that humor is good medicine. Now researchers in Tennessee tell us it may also provide a bit of a workout. They found that genuine, voiced laughter boosts energy consumption and heart rate by 10 percent to 20 percent. That means a 10- to 15-minute belly laugh might burn anywhere from 10 to 40 calories. It's a lot of laughing for a few calories, but optimists will be tickled by the result.
Optimism and survival
It's obvious that healthy people live longer than sick people. If optimism actually improves health, it should also boost longevity—and according to two studies from the U.S. and two from the Netherlands, it does.
The first American study evaluated 839 people in the early 1960s, performing a psychological test for optimism-pessimism as well as a complete medical evaluation. When the people were rechecked 30 years later, optimism was linked to longevity; for every 10-point increase in pessimism on the optimism–pessimism test, the mortality rate rose 19 percent.
A newer U.S. study looked at 6,959 students who took a comprehensive personality test when they entered the University of North Carolina in the mid-1960s. During the next 40 years, 476 of the people died from a variety of causes, with cancer being the most common. All in all, pessimism took a substantial toll; the most pessimistic individuals had a 42 percent higher rate of death than the most optimistic.
The two Dutch studies reported similar results. In one, researchers tracked 545 men who were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer when they were evaluated for dispositional optimism in 1985. Over the next 15 years, the optimists were 55 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than the pessimists, even after traditional cardiovascular risk factors and depression were taken into account.
The other study from Holland evaluated 941 men and women between the ages of 65 and 85. People who demonstrated dispositional optimism at the start of the study enjoyed a 45 percent lower risk of death during a 9-year follow-up period.
Possible mechanisms
Taken together, these studies argue persuasively that optimism is good for health. But why? What puts the silver in the silver lining?
Skeptics (or pessimists) might suggest that the effect is more apparent than real. People who are healthy are likely to have a brighter outlook than people who are ill, so perhaps optimism is actually the result of good health instead of the other way around. To counter this argument, researchers can adjust their results for pre-existing medical conditions, including physical problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, and mental problems such as depression. The studies that made these adjustments found that medical conditions did not tarnish the benefits of a bright outlook on life. Moreover, by tracking people for 15, 30, and 40 years, scientists can minimize the potential bias of pre-existing conditions.
Another explanation is behavioral. It is possible that optimists enjoy better health and longer lives than pessimists because they lead healthier lifestyles, build stronger social support networks, and get better medical care. Indeed, some studies report that optimists are more likely to exercise, less likely to smoke, more likely to live with a spouse, and more likely to follow medical advice than pessimists. But optimism is not generally associated with a better diet or a leaner physique, and even when results are adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors, a beneficial effect of optimism persists.
In addition to behavioral advantages, optimism may have biological benefits that improve health. A 2008 study of 2,873 healthy men and women found that a positive outlook on life was linked to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, even after taking age, employment, income, ethnicity, obesity, smoking, and depression into account. In women, but not men, a sunny disposition was also associated with lower levels of two markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6), which predict the risk of heart attack and stroke. Other possible benefits include reduced levels of adrenaline, improved immune function, and less active clotting systems.
Finally, heredity may explain some of the link. It is possible that genes predispose some people to optimism, and that the same genes exert a direct effect on health and longevity.
Blue skies
More study is needed to clarify the link between optimism and good health. It's likely that multiple mechanisms are involved.
Personality is complex, and doctors don't know if optimism is hard-wired into an individual or if a sunny disposition can be nurtured in some way. It's doubtful that McLandburgh Wilson was pondering such weighty questions when he explained optimism in 1915:
"Twixt the optimist and pessimist / The difference is droll / The optimist sees the doughnut / But the pessimist sees the hole.”
Today's doctors don't think much of doughnuts, but they are accumulating evidence that optimism is good for health. As you await the results of new research, do your best to seek silver linings, if not doughnuts.
Buddy DeSylva's upbeat lyrics to Jerome Kern's lovely tune provide an appealing call to a positive outlook on life, even in the face of adversity. Indeed, a cheerful disposition can help you get through the tough patches that cloud every life, but do people who see the glass half-full also enjoy better health than gloomy types who see it half-empty?
According to a series of studies from the U.S. and Europe, the answer is yes. Optimism helps people cope with disease and recover from surgery. Even more impressive is the impact of a positive outlook on overall health and longevity. Research tells us that an optimistic outlook early in life can predict better health and a lower rate of death during follow-up periods of 15 to 40 years.
Measuring optimism
To investigate optimism, scientists first needed to develop reliable ways to measure the trait. Two systems are in widespread use; one measures dispositional optimism, the other explanatory style.
Dispositional optimism depends on positive expectations for one's future. These are not confined to one or two aspects of life, but are generalized expectations for a good outcome in several areas. Many researchers use the 12-item Life Orientation Test to measure dispositional optimism.
Explanatory style is based on how a person explains good or bad news. The pessimist assumes blame for bad news ("It's me"), assumes the situation is stable ("It will last forever"), and has a global impact ("It will affect everything I do"). The optimist, on the other hand, does not assume blame for negative events. Instead, he tends to give himself credit for good news, assume good things will last, and be confident that positive developments will spill over into many areas of his life. Researchers often use either the Attributional Style Questionnaire or the Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations method to evaluate optimism based on explanatory style.
In some studies, researchers have concentrated on the link between optimism and specific medical conditions. DeSylva and Kern tell us that a heart full of joy and gladness can banish trouble and strife—and now scientists tell us that optimism may help the heart itself.
In one study, doctors evaluated 309 middle-aged patients who were scheduled to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery. In addition to a complete pre-operative physical exam, each patient underwent a psychological evaluation designed to measure optimism, depression, neuroticism, and self-esteem. The researchers tracked all the patients for six months after surgery. When they analyzed the data, they found that optimists were only half as likely as pessimists to require re-hospitalization. In a similar study of 298 angioplasty patients, optimism was also protective; over a six-month period, pessimists were three times more likely than optimists to have heart attacks or require repeat angioplasties or bypass operations.
Optimism and blood pressure
A sunny outlook may help people recover after a cardiac procedure, but can it also reduce the risk of developing one of the major risks for cardiovascular disease—hypertension? Research conducted in Finland suggests it can. Scientists evaluated 616 middle-aged men who had normal blood pressures when the study began. Each volunteer's mental outlook was checked with questions about his expectations for the future, and each was evaluated for cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse, and a family history of hypertension. Over a four-year period, highly pessimistic men were three times more likely to develop hypertension than cheerier souls, even after other risk factors were taken into account.
An American study of 2,564 men and women who were 65 and older also found that optimism is good for blood pressure. Researchers used a four-item, positive-emotion summary scale to evaluate each participant during a home visit. They also measured blood pressure, height, and weight and collected information about age, marital status, alcohol use, diabetes, and medication. Even after taking these other factors into account, people with positive emotions had lower blood pressures than those with a negative outlook. On average, the people with the most positive emotions had the lowest blood pressures.
Emotions and infections
A 2006 study explored the link between emotions and viral infections of the respiratory tract. Scientists evaluated the personality style of 193 healthy volunteers, then gave each a common respiratory virus. Subjects who displayed a positive personality style were less likely to develop viral symptoms than their less positive peers.
Optimism and heart disease
High blood pressure is an important cause of coronary artery disease. If optimism can reduce the risk of hypertension, can it also protect against developing coronary artery disease itself? To find out, scientists from Harvard and Boston University evaluated 1,306 men with an average age of 61. Each volunteer was evaluated for an optimistic or pessimistic explanatory style as well as for blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity, smoking, alcohol use, and family history of heart disease. None of the men had been diagnosed with coronary artery disease when the study began. Over the next 10 years, the most pessimistic men were more than twice as likely to develop heart disease than the most optimistic men, even after taking other risk factors into account.
Optimism and overall health
Optimism appears to protect the heart and circulation—and it's heartening to learn that it can have similar benefits for overall health.
A large, short-term study evaluated the link between optimism and overall health in 2,300 older adults. Over two years, people who had a positive outlook were much more likely to stay healthy and enjoy independent living than their less-cheerful peers.
Staying well for two years is one thing, remaining healthy for the long haul another. But for 447 patients who were evaluated for optimism as part of a comprehensive medical evaluation between 1962 and 1965, the benefits of a positive outlook were desirable indeed. Over a 30-year period, optimism was linked to a better outcome on 8 measures of physical and mental function and health.
A laughable study
Experienced clinicians know that humor is good medicine. Now researchers in Tennessee tell us it may also provide a bit of a workout. They found that genuine, voiced laughter boosts energy consumption and heart rate by 10 percent to 20 percent. That means a 10- to 15-minute belly laugh might burn anywhere from 10 to 40 calories. It's a lot of laughing for a few calories, but optimists will be tickled by the result.
Optimism and survival
It's obvious that healthy people live longer than sick people. If optimism actually improves health, it should also boost longevity—and according to two studies from the U.S. and two from the Netherlands, it does.
The first American study evaluated 839 people in the early 1960s, performing a psychological test for optimism-pessimism as well as a complete medical evaluation. When the people were rechecked 30 years later, optimism was linked to longevity; for every 10-point increase in pessimism on the optimism–pessimism test, the mortality rate rose 19 percent.
A newer U.S. study looked at 6,959 students who took a comprehensive personality test when they entered the University of North Carolina in the mid-1960s. During the next 40 years, 476 of the people died from a variety of causes, with cancer being the most common. All in all, pessimism took a substantial toll; the most pessimistic individuals had a 42 percent higher rate of death than the most optimistic.
The two Dutch studies reported similar results. In one, researchers tracked 545 men who were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer when they were evaluated for dispositional optimism in 1985. Over the next 15 years, the optimists were 55 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than the pessimists, even after traditional cardiovascular risk factors and depression were taken into account.
The other study from Holland evaluated 941 men and women between the ages of 65 and 85. People who demonstrated dispositional optimism at the start of the study enjoyed a 45 percent lower risk of death during a 9-year follow-up period.
Possible mechanisms
Taken together, these studies argue persuasively that optimism is good for health. But why? What puts the silver in the silver lining?
Skeptics (or pessimists) might suggest that the effect is more apparent than real. People who are healthy are likely to have a brighter outlook than people who are ill, so perhaps optimism is actually the result of good health instead of the other way around. To counter this argument, researchers can adjust their results for pre-existing medical conditions, including physical problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, and mental problems such as depression. The studies that made these adjustments found that medical conditions did not tarnish the benefits of a bright outlook on life. Moreover, by tracking people for 15, 30, and 40 years, scientists can minimize the potential bias of pre-existing conditions.
Another explanation is behavioral. It is possible that optimists enjoy better health and longer lives than pessimists because they lead healthier lifestyles, build stronger social support networks, and get better medical care. Indeed, some studies report that optimists are more likely to exercise, less likely to smoke, more likely to live with a spouse, and more likely to follow medical advice than pessimists. But optimism is not generally associated with a better diet or a leaner physique, and even when results are adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors, a beneficial effect of optimism persists.
In addition to behavioral advantages, optimism may have biological benefits that improve health. A 2008 study of 2,873 healthy men and women found that a positive outlook on life was linked to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, even after taking age, employment, income, ethnicity, obesity, smoking, and depression into account. In women, but not men, a sunny disposition was also associated with lower levels of two markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6), which predict the risk of heart attack and stroke. Other possible benefits include reduced levels of adrenaline, improved immune function, and less active clotting systems.
Finally, heredity may explain some of the link. It is possible that genes predispose some people to optimism, and that the same genes exert a direct effect on health and longevity.
Blue skies
More study is needed to clarify the link between optimism and good health. It's likely that multiple mechanisms are involved.
Personality is complex, and doctors don't know if optimism is hard-wired into an individual or if a sunny disposition can be nurtured in some way. It's doubtful that McLandburgh Wilson was pondering such weighty questions when he explained optimism in 1915:
"Twixt the optimist and pessimist / The difference is droll / The optimist sees the doughnut / But the pessimist sees the hole.”
Today's doctors don't think much of doughnuts, but they are accumulating evidence that optimism is good for health. As you await the results of new research, do your best to seek silver linings, if not doughnuts.
Oprah Winfrey tops list of 30 most generous stars
She's been named as the highest-paid TV celebrity and one of the world's most powerful women, but American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey is also a big giver, topping a list of the 30 most generous celebrities for the second year running.
The second annual list, compiled by The Giving Back Fund, a group that seeks to encourage philanthropy, put Oprah in the top slot with The Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Oprah's Angel Network spending $50.2 million in 2007 on education, health care, and advocacy for women and children worldwide.
Second place on the list, published in the latest edition of Parade magazine, went to trumpeter and A&M records co-founder Herb Alpert with The Herb Alpert Foundation spending $13 million on education, including the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
Singer-actress Barbra Streisand came third in the list that was based on public records of donations made in 2007, with $11 million donated by The Streisand Foundation to the environment, women's issues, civil rights, AIDS research, and advocacy.
Fourth place went to Paul Newman who gave $10 million to the Scholarship for Kenyon College, his alma mater in Gambier, Ohio, while Mel Gibson was in the fifth slot, giving $9.9 million to the Holy Family Church in Malibu, California.
The next five slots on the list were taken by Hollywood glamour couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who run The Jolie-Pitt Foundation that has been actively involved in rebuilding New Orleans and refugee aid, and cyclist Lance Armstrong whose foundation raises money for cancer research.
Tied in seventh place were former basketball player Michael Jordan giving $5 million to Hales Franciscan High School, an African-American all-boys school in Chicago, and Canada's ex-ice hockey player Eric Lindros who donated $5 million to the London Health Sciences Centre, a Canadian hospital where he was treated.
Rounding out the top 10 was talk radio host Rush Limbaugh who gave $4.2 million to children of marines and law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
Marc Pollick, president of the Los Angeles-based fund, said The Giving Back 30 list was set up to encourage by example, as people could not help but be influenced by the generosity of their peers.
The second annual list, compiled by The Giving Back Fund, a group that seeks to encourage philanthropy, put Oprah in the top slot with The Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Oprah's Angel Network spending $50.2 million in 2007 on education, health care, and advocacy for women and children worldwide.
Second place on the list, published in the latest edition of Parade magazine, went to trumpeter and A&M records co-founder Herb Alpert with The Herb Alpert Foundation spending $13 million on education, including the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
Singer-actress Barbra Streisand came third in the list that was based on public records of donations made in 2007, with $11 million donated by The Streisand Foundation to the environment, women's issues, civil rights, AIDS research, and advocacy.
Fourth place went to Paul Newman who gave $10 million to the Scholarship for Kenyon College, his alma mater in Gambier, Ohio, while Mel Gibson was in the fifth slot, giving $9.9 million to the Holy Family Church in Malibu, California.
The next five slots on the list were taken by Hollywood glamour couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who run The Jolie-Pitt Foundation that has been actively involved in rebuilding New Orleans and refugee aid, and cyclist Lance Armstrong whose foundation raises money for cancer research.
Tied in seventh place were former basketball player Michael Jordan giving $5 million to Hales Franciscan High School, an African-American all-boys school in Chicago, and Canada's ex-ice hockey player Eric Lindros who donated $5 million to the London Health Sciences Centre, a Canadian hospital where he was treated.
Rounding out the top 10 was talk radio host Rush Limbaugh who gave $4.2 million to children of marines and law-enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
Marc Pollick, president of the Los Angeles-based fund, said The Giving Back 30 list was set up to encourage by example, as people could not help but be influenced by the generosity of their peers.
Sarah Palin stirs passion in Hollywood
Sarah Palin represents many things Hollywood liberals love to hate, from her opposition to gay marriage to her support for gun rights, yet she possesses two key qualities they admire -- star appeal and a great script.
Accordingly, Hollywood Republicans -- often overshadowed by their left-leaning peers -- are seeking to capitalize on the celebrity of John McCain's running mate in the Nov. 4 election to generate support in a town well-known for its lavish Democratic fund-raisers and events.
"She's certainly got star appeal and is the kind of candidate that is made for Hollywood. I offered to throw her a fundraiser myself," said MGM chief Harry Sloan, one of Hollywood's most vocal Republicans.
Palin has shaken up the White House race, boosted enthusiasm among previously apathetic supporters of McCain's presidential nomination and drawn support from women, rural voters and Southerners, according to recent polls.
Sloan said there were no plans for a Palin Hollywood fundraiser yet as her campaign managers were inundated with similar requests from all over the country after her national debut at the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3.
A campaign spokesman would not disclose McCain and Palin's movements beyond one week's time, but various Hollywood executives said they heard the Arizona senator and Alaska governor would be swinging through California later this month or early next month.
Democratic candidates have long enjoyed a fundraising advantage in Hollywood. Through the end of July, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama raised $5.2 million from the entertainment industry, compared with McCain's $885,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
"It's like 10 to 1 here in terms of performing artists who support Obama versus McCain. There are a significant group of Republican supporters in Hollywood, but they're just not as outspoken," said political analyst Allan Hoffenblum.
PERSONAL STORY
Hollywood is aligning again for Obama on Sept. 16 when Barbra Streisand will sing at a Beverly Hills event expected to raise as much as $9 million.
While some Hollywood political watchers see Palin helping to mobilize greater celebrity support around Obama, they said filmmakers, producers and other entertainment executives were fascinated by the personal story of McCain's running mate, including her "hockey mom" persona and passion for hunting.
"These people are interested in drama, and Sarah Palin, a pistol-packing mother of five, is clearly an interesting character. Politically, they may not agree with Sarah Palin but they are intrigued," said Joel Fox, a political analyst.
Long-time Democrat Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, attended the Republican National Convention. "It's important to show our organization has allies in both camps. Our issues are bi-partisan," said Glickman.
"The question is does she become a bigger draw than McCain? It's too early to draw any conclusions," he said.
Palin's arrival is encouraging to Hollywood conservatives like Robert Davi, who stars in director David Zucker's upcoming "An American Carol," a spoof about a liberal filmmaker who wanted to abolish the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
"A lot of times, conservative guys on the set feel intimidated and unable to speak their view," said Davi, describing Palin as "energizing."
For his part, Zucker, a former liberal Democrat turned conservative Republican, hopes his movie, also starring Hollywood Republican Jon Voight, could help change how Hollywood views movies with conservative themes.
"I think Hollywood is naturally drawn to making anti-American movies. This will be an unabashedly conservative piece of entertainment. If it does well, it will have a huge effect," Zucker said.
The film opens widely on Oct 3, weeks before Oliver Stone's left-leaning "W," about U.S. President George W. Bush.
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Accordingly, Hollywood Republicans -- often overshadowed by their left-leaning peers -- are seeking to capitalize on the celebrity of John McCain's running mate in the Nov. 4 election to generate support in a town well-known for its lavish Democratic fund-raisers and events.
"She's certainly got star appeal and is the kind of candidate that is made for Hollywood. I offered to throw her a fundraiser myself," said MGM chief Harry Sloan, one of Hollywood's most vocal Republicans.
Palin has shaken up the White House race, boosted enthusiasm among previously apathetic supporters of McCain's presidential nomination and drawn support from women, rural voters and Southerners, according to recent polls.
Sloan said there were no plans for a Palin Hollywood fundraiser yet as her campaign managers were inundated with similar requests from all over the country after her national debut at the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3.
A campaign spokesman would not disclose McCain and Palin's movements beyond one week's time, but various Hollywood executives said they heard the Arizona senator and Alaska governor would be swinging through California later this month or early next month.
Democratic candidates have long enjoyed a fundraising advantage in Hollywood. Through the end of July, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama raised $5.2 million from the entertainment industry, compared with McCain's $885,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
"It's like 10 to 1 here in terms of performing artists who support Obama versus McCain. There are a significant group of Republican supporters in Hollywood, but they're just not as outspoken," said political analyst Allan Hoffenblum.
PERSONAL STORY
Hollywood is aligning again for Obama on Sept. 16 when Barbra Streisand will sing at a Beverly Hills event expected to raise as much as $9 million.
While some Hollywood political watchers see Palin helping to mobilize greater celebrity support around Obama, they said filmmakers, producers and other entertainment executives were fascinated by the personal story of McCain's running mate, including her "hockey mom" persona and passion for hunting.
"These people are interested in drama, and Sarah Palin, a pistol-packing mother of five, is clearly an interesting character. Politically, they may not agree with Sarah Palin but they are intrigued," said Joel Fox, a political analyst.
Long-time Democrat Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, attended the Republican National Convention. "It's important to show our organization has allies in both camps. Our issues are bi-partisan," said Glickman.
"The question is does she become a bigger draw than McCain? It's too early to draw any conclusions," he said.
Palin's arrival is encouraging to Hollywood conservatives like Robert Davi, who stars in director David Zucker's upcoming "An American Carol," a spoof about a liberal filmmaker who wanted to abolish the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
"A lot of times, conservative guys on the set feel intimidated and unable to speak their view," said Davi, describing Palin as "energizing."
For his part, Zucker, a former liberal Democrat turned conservative Republican, hopes his movie, also starring Hollywood Republican Jon Voight, could help change how Hollywood views movies with conservative themes.
"I think Hollywood is naturally drawn to making anti-American movies. This will be an unabashedly conservative piece of entertainment. If it does well, it will have a huge effect," Zucker said.
The film opens widely on Oct 3, weeks before Oliver Stone's left-leaning "W," about U.S. President George W. Bush.
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The top ten most misheard pop lyrics
A survey carried out by hearing aid firm Amplifon has come up with a list of the top ten most hilariously misheard pop lyrics, with Sting topping the chart with the song 'When the World is Running Down'.
Listeners often mishear the lyrics of the song by Sting's old band The Police as "You make the best homemade stew around", instead of the original "You make the best of what's still around".
Following him were Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees, whose song 'Stayin' Alive' had its lyrics twisted into, "It's alright. It's okay. You make love the other way" from "It's alright. It's okay. You may look the other way".
Sir Paul McCartney's band 'The Beatles' were next with their 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', the lyrics having been changed from "The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes" to "The girl with the colitis goes by".
The third slot was taken by Bono's U2 song 'Mysterious Ways', whose lyrics were turned into "Shamu the mysterious whale" from "She moves in mysterious ways."
The Beatles had the lyrics of their song 'Michelle' turned from "Michelle, ma belle, sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble, tres bien ensemble" to "Michelle ma belle, some say monkeys play piano well, play piano well."
Another song to fall victim was Freddie Mercury and Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which had "Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango" changed to "Scallaboosh, Scallaboosh, will you do the banned tango."
In seventh place came The Police's song 'Message In A Bottle' whose lyrics were changed from "A year has passed since I wrote my note" to "A year has passed since I broke my nose."
David Bowie had his song 'Changes', changed from "Strange fascination fascinating me" to "Strange vaccinations are killing me."
Taking the ninth place was Liam Gallagher's Oasis song 'Wonderwall', which had its lyrics turned from "You're gonna be the one that saves me" to "You're gonna be the one at Sainsbury's."
In the 10th place was English singer Kate Bush, whose 1978 hit was heard as, "Heathcliff, it's me, I'm a tree, I'm a wombat", when the actual lyrics were, "Heathcliff, it's me, I'm Cathy I've come home".
Listeners often mishear the lyrics of the song by Sting's old band The Police as "You make the best homemade stew around", instead of the original "You make the best of what's still around".
Following him were Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees, whose song 'Stayin' Alive' had its lyrics twisted into, "It's alright. It's okay. You make love the other way" from "It's alright. It's okay. You may look the other way".
Sir Paul McCartney's band 'The Beatles' were next with their 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', the lyrics having been changed from "The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes" to "The girl with the colitis goes by".
The third slot was taken by Bono's U2 song 'Mysterious Ways', whose lyrics were turned into "Shamu the mysterious whale" from "She moves in mysterious ways."
The Beatles had the lyrics of their song 'Michelle' turned from "Michelle, ma belle, sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble, tres bien ensemble" to "Michelle ma belle, some say monkeys play piano well, play piano well."
Another song to fall victim was Freddie Mercury and Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which had "Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango" changed to "Scallaboosh, Scallaboosh, will you do the banned tango."
In seventh place came The Police's song 'Message In A Bottle' whose lyrics were changed from "A year has passed since I wrote my note" to "A year has passed since I broke my nose."
David Bowie had his song 'Changes', changed from "Strange fascination fascinating me" to "Strange vaccinations are killing me."
Taking the ninth place was Liam Gallagher's Oasis song 'Wonderwall', which had its lyrics turned from "You're gonna be the one that saves me" to "You're gonna be the one at Sainsbury's."
In the 10th place was English singer Kate Bush, whose 1978 hit was heard as, "Heathcliff, it's me, I'm a tree, I'm a wombat", when the actual lyrics were, "Heathcliff, it's me, I'm Cathy I've come home".
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