Bob CollinsAre you a spendthrift or a tightwad?
On Tuesday’s Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio, we’re going to examine some research that recently came out that found:
The theory is that you whippersnappers have never seen hard times, so you spend like there’s no tomorrow.
What else could it be? The research shows “a modest relationship” between being a tightwad or a spendthrift; tightwads are only 9 percent more likely to have a bachelor’s degree than a spendthrift.
Of course, the poor savings rate in the United States may undermine the conclusions of the research that most people are neither spendthrifts, nor tightwads, and the 40 percent that’s left meet the definitions of “tightwad” on a 3-to-2 ratio. The authors admit this in noting that the group they studied may not be representative of the population as a whole.
Which are you? You take this test. Of course, by the time they e-mail you your score, a fix will have been found for the pending insolvency of Social Security. So just take a guess.
I’ll be live-blogging the show on Tuesday, starting in the 10 a.m. segment. You can offer up your spending stories and I’ll be picking the poignant ones (as well as the poignant comments) to share with the radio audience (Yes, News Cut is going on the radio!).
Still, the first question Kerri Miller is going to want to know, is how the News Cut audience views itself. For now, we’ll just leave the Gen Y (or Gen Spendthrift) question out of it.
