Don't Quit Your Day Job…

That didn’t take long, did it?

I gave you this rambling post on college major salaries a few months back. Today I present to you a fresh perspective from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (pdf). It breaks down the categories a little bit differently, but now that we’ve got some hard 2011 data you know the DQYDJians demand a graph!

The issue of the declining savings rate in America has been mentioned as one of the ways in which the younger generations are falling behind economically. The credit crisis caused massive deleveraging in America which increased the savings rate, but most of it was due to consumers reducing debts and liabilities as opposed to building assets. There could be many causes of this, but to name one: in times of uncertainty, consumer tend to brace themselves for a more hazy future by building net worth as quickly as possible. A decrease in stock prices and home prices eliminated much of the buildup of household assets which needed to be counteracted by an increase in savings. Also, credit standards have tightened, which has further compounded the problem and increased the deleveraging among American households.

We apologize in advance if this discussion is too concentrated on minutiae and definitions, but we’d like to clarify an issue (with the help of our readers!).

Let’s just throw it out here: “How do you define savings?”. It’s a serious question, and you’re going to get two articles with serious answers… one from yours truly and another from Cameron, our resident Economist. Let me lead with my definition: ‘savings’ , in my mind, is any money set aside from current earnings that is easily accessible, liquid, fungible, and have a reasonable chance for maintenance of principal and appreciation.

Our tax visualization last time was interesting, but this one might convey more data. Once again, or source for tax data is the IRS’s publication 2010 Data Book. Just like last time, note these are tax collections, and the IRS annual year ends in September. True revenue is after all refunds and credits are finalized, but this data is interesting to see the amount of tax collected – and how it makes it’s way to Uncle Sam.

Been reading DQYDJ for a while? Good. You know that looking at data from a different angle yields very interesting insights.

Here’s one interesting thing: the federal income tax code benefits 18 to 35 year olds at the expense of 45 to 65 year olds. How do I figure? The IRS helpfully posted data for 2009 (links are xls files) on both the amount of income made by age group and the amount of Federal income taxes paid after credits. So, should the Silent Generation and Baby Boom Generation be mad at Generations X and Y? Partially! Read on.

Admit it – when you woke up today you asked yourself this very question – “is it better to go to college or to become a truck driver?“. Well, so did we here at DQYDJ. Inspired by a Twitter conversation from our friends JT at MoneyMamba and Matt Allen at Rambling Fever, we had to ask… how much do recently minted college graduates make when compared to their truck driving contemporaries? I think we can fairly classify this as an ‘epic post’ – make sure you fully understand my methodology before complaining… then complain all you want in my comments section!

Lost in all of the discussion about the $1 Trillion in student loan debt, there being more student loan debt than credit card debt, Occupiers asking for student loan forgiveness, and even whether certain concentrations should receive loans with higher interest rates is an important question: Is college worth it?

Credit cards get a bad rap – one that is not entirely deserved. I’ve got this working theory that it has to do with their name – the term ‘credit’ may mean ‘ability to obtain resources based on a future payoff’, but the card is named entirely wrong: If the only purpose of your credit cards is to purchase things on credit you are doing things completely wrong. The true beauty of credit cards is that they are a liquidity tool; credit cards allow you constant access to funding… whenever you need it.  So, let’s look at the perfect strategy for turning your credit cards into liquidity cards!

Jason’s cheap, but that doesn’t mean he compromises when it comes to his meals… read this epic guest post about avoiding food that tastes like rat, comment, and check him out at his site, Live Real, Now.

Let’s call this post PKamp3′s financial confessions!

In response to a Dollar Challenge by fellow Personal Finance writer Corey at 20′s Finances, we’ve decided to give all of you curious folks out there in the Internet a view of your humble host’s finances. As a condition of the challenge, all numbers included in this post are post-tax (For the record, more goes to tax than savings. Thanks California!). Without further ado, here are our non-GAAP 1st quarter finances, audited by the firm of DQYDJ.net.