21Nov/1198

Money Chart

by Jeff

(Click on the chart above to embiggen.)

Image text: There, I showed you it.

Well, that's why this one is late.  It is MASSIVE.  This is another chart that Randall does for xkcd from time to time.  He has done maps of the Internet (twice) and other huge visualizations.

Dollar increments are different colors.  Dollar increments are green. (Naturally, because American paper money is green.) Thousands are Orange/Red.  Millions are gray.  Billions are yellow.  Trillions are blue.

Since there is so much information here, I'll pick out some interesting ones.  Please comment below with your favorite entries or ones you would like to explain as I don't have the time to get to every single one.

In the dollar section, I think there is a typo in the bottom right hand corner.  The two very small boxes are average worker  hourly wage in 1965 and 2007.  ($19.61 and $19.71, respectively)  And then it has two much larger boxes, but both say "Typical 2007 CEO pay for the same period".  But, the much smaller of the boxes should say "1965" instead.  These four boxes indicate that the CEO pay has skyrocketed from 490.31 (hourly) to $5,419.97 (hourly) in the same time period in which the average worker's salary has skyrocketed 10 cents.

In the bottom of the Thousands chart, there is a reference to the song by Bare Naked Ladies entitled "If I Had A Million Dollars" and all the things referenced in the song to buy the love of another person.

Also in the Thousands chart is a reference to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy from the popular book series by J.K. Rowling about Harry Potter.  One box is the estimated yearly tuition for the school and the next is how much seven years at the school would cost.  To get a degree at the school, it takes 7 years.

In the Billions section, I'll take on the "Fictional Billionaires".

Carlsine Cullen is from the Twilight Series of books and movies.  He is a vampire and adoptive father of Edward, Emmett and Alice Cullen, as well as Rosalie and Jasper Halewho.  He was born in the 1640s and amassed his wealth through many years of compound interest and investments.

Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character from many properties including the afternoon cartoon, Duck Tales.  Scrooge McDuck has a "money bin" full of coins and other sorts of collectibles that he routinely goes swimming in.

Bruce Wayne is Batman.  Batman is Bruce Wayne.  He is portrayed in many comic books, graphic novels, TV shows and movies by many different actors.

Artemis Fowl is an Irish child prodigy and a ruthless master criminal from the book Series by the same name. He uses his intelligence to build his family fortune through crime.

In the millions section, there is another reference to JK Rowling, in this case it is MC Front-A-Lot (The creator of the subgenre of hip-hop known as "Nerd Core") who estimated her net worth at $1 billion.  But, that begs the question, why do the boxes only add up to $82,000?  Is this another typo?

That is all I have time for today.  What did you find interesting in this massive chart?

(PS - Since it is Thanksgiving Week in the US, I will be out and about on Wednesday and Friday this week.  I'll have the comic explanations up, but they may be late.)

Filed under: Money 98 Comments
5Sep/1146

Investing

by Jeff

Image text: But Einstein said it was the most powerful force in the universe, and I take all my investment advice from flippant remarks by theoretical physicists making small talk at parties.

Compound interest is a type of interest in which the interest earned is added to the total amount, so that the interest itself then begins to gain interest.  In the opposite type "simple interest", the amount used to calculate the interest will always be, for example, $1000.

Snopes has its doubts about the quote about compound interest being actually said by Einstein.

Filed under: Math, Money 46 Comments

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