- Fastest-Growing Jobs for Hispanic and Latino Americans – 2021 Study
Hispanic and Latino Americans have seen some of the highest unemployment rates during the COVID-19 pandemic of any race and ethnic group for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports data. In the second quarter of 2020, the Hispanic and Latino unemployment rate was 16.7%, the highest unemployment rate in that period compared to… read more…
- How Long Does It Take to Become a Homeowner? – 2021 Edition
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has financially impacted Americans in many ways, the homeownership rate has risen and stayed elevated. Census Bureau data shows that the homeownership rate actually hit 67.9% in the second quarter of 2020, up from 64.1% from a year before. More recently, the national homeownership rate was 65.4% in the second quarter… read more…
- States With the Most Financial Advisors Per Capita – 2021 Study
There are 218,100 personal financial advisors in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This means that there are 9.70 financial advisors for every 10,000 adults ages 25 and older. Of course, financial advisors are more concentrated in some areas than others. To find where Americans may have the largest selection of experts to… read more…
- Best-Paying Places for Nurses – 2021 Study
An increasing number of nurses are trading in traditional hospital-staffing positions for higher-paying temporary jobs with traveling nurse agencies. The difference in pay is often significant. The Associated Press reported in September 2021 that nurses working for traveling nurse agencies make $70 to $90 per hour on average, which is two to three times higher… read more…
- Places Where Residents Are Investing More – 2021 Edition
While the COVID-19 pandemic hit millions of Americans in their wallets, it also created a surge of new retail investors looking to capitalize on stock market volatility. A survey conducted by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found that 57% of respondents opened a taxable investment… read more…
- Where Hispanics and Latinos Fare Best Economically – 2021 Study
Hispanics and Latinos make up almost 19% of the U.S. population (or 62.1 million out of more than 332 million), according to the 2020 Census. And according to data from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, they are becoming an increasingly important economic force, with almost 9 million homeowners nationwide, after growing by more… read more…
- Best States for Homeowners – 2021 Edition
Homeownership is often viewed as a fundamental pillar of investing and building wealth. While real estate markets vary from city to city, home values have historically risen over the decades. In fact, home values across the U.S. have increased by nearly 17% over the last year, rising to $298,933 by the end of July 2021, according… read more…
- How Do Financial Advisors Quantify Success? – 2021 Study
Business growth is often top-of-mind for financial advisors. Many financial advisory firms follow an “economies of scale” model – that is, larger advisory firms generally tend to be more cost-efficient as they attract and service larger clients. This was shown recently by InvestmentNews’ 2020 Pricing and Profitability study, which found that firm revenue, average assets managed per client and average… read more…
- Where Upper-Middle-Class People Are Moving – 2021 Edition
Tax filers with higher adjusted gross incomes (AGIs) tend to move less than filers with lower AGIs. This may be due to various reasons, including that taxpayers in higher income brackets often skew older or are more established in their careers. Regardless of the cause, IRS migration data shows that roughly 3% of filers with… read more…
- Cities With the Most Financial Stress – 2021 Edition
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began, a majority of Americans reported feeling anxiety and stress surrounding their finances. Researchers at the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at the George Washington University and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation found that 60% of Americans in 2018 indicated feeling anxious when thinking about their personal finances, while half said money… read more…
- Best State Capitals to Live In – 2021 Edition
Beyond acting as headquarters for the state’s high court, the state legislature and the governor’s office, state capitals can also be ideal places to live. Some state capitals are more populous, bustling metropolitan areas while others are sleepy towns where the government is the biggest industry. SmartAsset crunched the numbers on all 50 to identify… read more…
- Income Needed to Pay Rent in the Largest U.S. Cities – 2021 Edition
Housing insecurity and lack of protection from evictions have become even more pressing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a March 2021 report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an estimated 8.8 million renter households were behind on their rental payments as of December 2020. Staying ahead of and completing rental payments can… read more…
- States With the Strongest Unions – 2021 Edition
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that roughly one out of 10 workers in 2020 were union members (10.8%). Membership has gone up 0.5% since 2019, but has decreased by more than half since 1983, when approximately one out of five workers were union members (20.1%). Historically, organized labor has played an influential role… read more…
- Cities Where Worker Burnout Is Most Likely – 2021 Study
A 2021 survey from the staffing and recruitment firm Robert Half says that 44% of professionals reported feeling burnt out at their jobs. That’s a 10% jump from one year ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the economy. This year, a record 3.8 million U.S. employees quit their private-sector jobs in April 2021 – and… read more…
- Where Did RIA Headquarters Move During the COVID-19 Pandemic? – 2021 Study
Financial advisor firms are on the move. That’s in part because the COVID-19 pandemic has presented an opportunity for firms to pull up stakes and relocate their headquarters to new areas that better suit their needs. Some firms had already planned to do so in 2020 prior to the pandemic, but changing preferences as a… read more…
- Most Promising Jobs for Employment and Pay – 2021 Edition
The COVID-19 crisis has significantly affected the U.S. job market, and its impact will likely be felt for some time. After publishing 2019-2029 job projections in the fall of 2020 that did not capture the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued alternate scenarios that model how jobs might be… read more…
- Most Livable College Towns – 2021 Study
The closure of college campuses in 2020 stoked fears about whether college towns around the country could endure the economic instability wrought by COVID-19. The smaller the town, the more precarious the economic situation. A SmartAsset study from 2020 found that the 11 most vulnerable college towns all had populations of 125,000 or less. But… read more…
- Most Dog-Friendly Cities in America – 2021 Edition
It’s no secret that the U.S. is absolutely dog crazy. According to an American Pet Products Association survey of pet owners from 2019-2020, more than half of all American households, or 63.4 million homes, had dogs. When it comes to taking care of their pooches, Americans spend an average of $1,200 per year on Fido,… read more…
- In Which Occupations Do Women Earn More Than Men? – 2021 Edition
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data from the second quarter of 2021 shows that female, full-time wage and salary workers earn 82% of what their male counterparts do on average. This pay gap has remained relatively constant over the past decade, but it varies even further among women and men when comparing different racial and… read more…
- Places Where Inflation Has Spiked the Most – 2021 Study
By the end of July 2021, the price of gasoline had surged almost 42% over the previous 12 months and the price of used vehicles spiked at nearly the same rate. While skyrocketing prices of these two commodities are the most dramatic examples of rising prices in today’s economic environment, they illustrate a simple truth:… read more…
- Best Cities for Young Financial Advisors to Start Their Career – 2021 Edition
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), almost one in 10 personal financial advisors are based in the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area. While the Big Apple may be a hot spot for financial advisors looking to start their career, there are many other places where financial advisors are in high demand and have… read more…
- What a Roommate Saves You in 50 U.S. Cities – 2021 Edition
Looking to boost your savings? Forget about cutting out those morning lattes, and instead consider your biggest monthly expense: housing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, housing costs represented nearly 33% of all household expenditures in 2019 – almost double the next category, transportation. Making adjustments to your housing budget – like renting… read more…
- Best Cities for Conferences – 2021 Edition
Over the past year and a half, in-person conferences have been put on pause. However, as vaccination rates increase and businesses reopen, many conferences across a variety of industries are returning to in-person formats in fall 2021. Within the financial advisory industry more specifically, Orion Advisor Services’ Ascent conference, Riskalyze’s Fearless conference and the T3 Advisor/Enterprise Conference… read more…
- Where It Pays Off to Buy a Long-Term Rental Property – 2021 Study
Owning real estate has traditionally been viewed as an effective way to hedge against inflation. The logic is simple: as the price of goods and services increases, so does property value. Like other types of real estate, rental properties stand to appreciate in value, but that’s hardly the only benefit of this asset class. Landlords… read more…
- Best Places for Career Opportunities in 2021
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than six million people reported not working at all or working fewer hours in June 2021 because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic. While the record high unemployment rate of 14.7% in April 2020 compelled many to budget carefully and remain cautious about changing jobs, the much… read more…