3 Things: Small Changes Add Up

Small Changes Add Up

1. Small changes, beginning today, can materially affect our future wealth; they can also dramatically impact our future selves. This article by Nick Maggiulli includes a powerful visualization of the cumulative effect on future wealth of saving 5% to 15% of our income each year. (Example assumed $50,000 in annual income with a 5% annual return.) Consider also how creating a habit that may not cost us much in terms of time – running 20 minutes a day or reading 25 pages a day – can boost our well-being in subsequent years. “The little things you do, the actions you perform, the habits you build day in and day out, will form your life”.

 How The Right Decisions And Compounding Can Lead to Huge Results (Of Dollars and Data, 11/7/2017)

Additional reading: Compound Interest: Making Those Numbers Count

Smaller Social Security checks in 2018?

2. Here’s a riddle posed by Mary Beth Franklin, a nationally recognized expert on Social Security: How can Medicare premiums remain the same in 2017 and 2018 yet result in a 23% increase for millions of retirees? (Hint: You can blame it on the Medicare “hold harmless” rules.)

Medicare premiums and Social Security COLAs: Here’s why retirees will pay up in 2018 (Crain’s Wealth, 11/21/2017)

Deeper dive: How The Medicare “Hold Harmless” Rules May Spike Part B Premiums

How the business world changes over a century

3. In 1917, U.S. Steel was the top U.S. company. Can you guess which company took the number one spot 50 years later? What about in 2017?

Most Valuable U.S. Companies Over 100 Years (Visual Capitalist, 11/14/2017)