Banks for You!

One of my favorite blogs is kottke.org – a daily posting of fun facts, videos, photos and essays from around the web. Kottke recently posted a chart from a website called XKCD called “A chart of almost all the money” showing a huge visual representation of big picture things about money like how much a billion dollars can buy, total government spending, who are the wealthiest people in the world, etc.

This chart goes into amazing detail and it has a lot to teach us about the larger world of money. Here are some of the fun facts I found from “The Money Chart.”

Movies are big business, but they used to be even bigger. Although the modern film industry is still going strong, some of the most successful movies of all time were released during the 1930s. Adjusted for inflation, the top-grossing box office blockbusters of all time are Gone With the Wind (1939) ($3.16 billion), Snow White (1937) ($2.84 billion) and Star Wars (1977) ($1.68 billion). During the 1930s, 80 million Americans bought movie tickets each year.

America is governed by millionaires. The average net worth of a U.S. Senator is $13.4 million, and the average net worth of a U.S. Congressional representative is $4.9 million. Meanwhile, the median net worth of a typical U.S. household is $71,635.

Want to “teach the world to sing?” There’s a famous Coca-Cola ad where they talk about “I’d like to teach the world to sing… I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” These are fine sentiments, but if you really want to teach the world to sing, it’s going to cost you. The cost of giving every person on Earth four singing lessons (at $30 per lesson) would add up to a total of $840 billion. The cost of buying a Coca-Cola for every person on Earth would be $2.24 billion – slightly less than Coca-Cola’s annual marketing budget of $2.98 billion.

How much money do you need to make to be in the top 1 percent? People in the “top 1 percent” of America earn at least $822,000 per year. To be in the top 10 percent of earners, you need to make at least $201,100 per year. If you make $76,100 per year or more, that puts you in the top 20 percent. The bottom 20 percent of Americans earn less than $10,200 per year. The median U.S. household earns $51,270 of ie and pays $12,100 in taxes.

Where can you afford to live? The typical annual housing cost for New York City is $25,000 per year, and $21,888 per year in San Francisco. Houston is one of the cheapest big U.S. cities, at only $11,888 per year. You can rent housing for a year in Scranton, PA for only $8,604.

Are smart phones a smart financial move? The average cost of a smart phone (including voice, text and data plans) is $1,320 per year. That’s almost enough to buy one Starbucks latte every single day – which would cost $1,820 per year.

Kids are expensive. The cost of raising a child to age 17 is at least $150,380 – and that’s if you look at the “lower end” of the scale. Upper ie parents spend an average of $302,860 on raising each kid. What else could you have done with that money, had you remained childless? How about 20 week-long vacations in Hawaii (which would cost $136,020)?

Pets aren’t cheap. It costs $670 per year to own and care for a pet cat, $695 for a dog, and $730 for a rabbit. (Pet fish, on the other hand are cheap – only $35 per year, per fish.)

Stay home for cheap eats. Dining out is expensive! The average single U.S. restaurant meal costs $35.65 (with the average meal at the 20 costliest San Francisco restaurants weighing in at $85.27). A family of four can eat at Arby’s for $34, or at Chili’s for $69.64. Want to save money on food? Stay home and cook pinto beans and rice – only $9.26 for a family of four.

I could literally spend all day looking at The Money Chart. There are lots of fun facts and figures that will make you think differently about your personal finances and the larger world of money.

Similar Posts:

• CD Rates – February 15, 2010
• 30 Year Mortgage Rates at 4.83% – MBA
• Top 10 Five Year CD Rates
• 15 Year Mortgage Rates Drop – Mortgage Applications Increase
• Current Mortgage Rates:30 Year Mortgage Rates at 5.09% and 15 Year Mortgage Rates at 4.50%