1. American consumers spend more money on average in 2 months than all the consumers in China and India spend in a year (source: Time Magazine). 2/04/08 issue, bullet # 14

2. 54% of American investors do not read financial literature (e.g., newspaper or magazine articles) because they believe the content is “too hard to understand” (source: AARP). 4/28/08 issue, bullet  # 13

3. More than 1 in 4 Americans (27%) believe they will be able to withdraw at least 10% per year from their accumulated assets throughout their retirement years (source: Investment News, USA Today). 5/12/08 issue, bullet # 14

4. 46% of the mortgages taken out by US home buyers in calendar year 2006 utilized greater than 95% financing, i.e., the home buyer put less than 5% down (source: Money). 5/26/08 issue, bullet # 7

5. The average amount of money that more than 2,000 adults anticipated they will need in order to retire comfortably was $1.13 million (source: USA Today, Kelton Research). 6/16/08 issue, bullet # 4

6. Americans are projected to be assessed $52 million a day in late fees charged by credit card companies during calendar year 2008 (source: R.K. Hammer, USA Today). 8/04/08 issue, bullet # 13

7. The top 1% of US taxpayers is responsible for the payment of 40% of all federal income tax.  Ten years ago (1998), the top 1% of taxpayers paid 35% of all federal income tax.  Twenty years ago (1988), the top 1% of taxpayers paid 28% of all federal income tax (source: Tax Foundation, IRS). 8/18/08 issue, bullet # 11

8. The oil ministers from 7 of the 13 OPEC countries were educated at US colleges, including Texas A&M, University of Colorado, University of North Carolina, Tufts University, Harvard, Lehigh University and Stanford University (source: OPEC). 9/08/08 issue, bullet # 9

9. As of 1/01/34, an estimated 43.8% of all owner-occupied homes in the US that had a first mortgage were in default on that loan (source: Department of Commerce, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). 10/20/08 issue, bullet # 9

10. In the 1-year following the low point from each of the 9 bear markets that have occurred since 1957 (not counting the current 10th bear market) the S&P 500 stock index has experienced a double-digit return.  The best of the 9 produced a +58.3% return.  The worst of the 9 was up +23.2% (source: BTN Research). 11/24/08 issue, bullet # 1

11. Nearly 1 out of every 3 US homeowners (32%) believes the value of his/her primary residence has increased in value over the last year (source: USA Today). 12/01/08 issue, bullet # 8

12. As of 9/06/08, the S&P 500 stock index had produced 26 days that resulted in a gain or loss of at least 4% in the previous 7,626 days, a period of almost 21 years.  In the 100 days from 9/06/08 to 12/15/08, the S&P 500 also had 26 days that resulted in a gain or loss of at least 4% (source: BTN Research). 12/15/08 issue, bullet # 3

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