The correlation between having money and being gay
Read an interesting article from the Huffingtonpost about how gay Americans are financially more secure than the average American.
(huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/gay-people-more-financially-secure_n_2249677.html)
According to the survey of more than 1,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people by Prudential, a financial services company, the average LGBTQ household earns $61,500 annually, which is more than $10,000 higher than the average national household income. Only 7% of respondents were unemployed, compared to the 7.9% US national average. But we all know it’s not about how much people make, it’s about how much they can save. Well gay households save on average $6,000 more than the national average. Not only that, but they also have $4,000 less in debt. Pretty impressive. But I guess it makes sense to save more money if you make more money. No wonder why so many gay celebrities are rich and awesome.
Why do gay people tend to earn more money and are better at managing their debt than the national average? I don’t really know. Of course this is only one study and results may vary by different States. Now I’m interested to see a survey like this for Canadians. 😀 I wonder if the findings will be similar or different. Have a nice weekend folks.
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Random Useless Fact: Pugs are extremely versatile animals. They can be made to look like almost anything…
Could it be Kids?? After all they’re pretty expensive.
That may be true. I know lots of straight couples who have decided not to have children either. The entire civilized worked is facing a demographic shift for the worst right now :0( Our kids might have to pay higher taxes than we do, and then whatever kind of economy their kids will live through is anyone’s guess :0)
My bet is on education. Level income means a higher average level of education, which means that they are more aware of the fact that they should be saving than the average person. Interesting study!
I think that’s certainly part of the reason. The study says gay people tend to be highly educated with half of them holding at least a bachelor’s degree. They also appear to live in affluent parts of the country.
I’m thinking it’s a selection issue with who is willing/able to identify as gay. People with limited income of their own or who are dependent on their parents (or a spouse!) or a fundamentalist church are less likely to be able to come out. So it’s not that all gay people save better, just that we only know about the ones who do.
Nice deduction :0) Furthermore respondents in the survey are only those who have claimed to be GLBT. Individuals who are confident enough to come out are probably more secure than those who are not, and higher self confidence can definitely lead to a more successful career.
That’s interesting – I don’t really have anything to add to what the previous commenters have said, but definitely an interesting correlation.
Vancouver’s gay community is pretty open about themselves. I wonder if the correlation will be similar here.
I kind of agree with Matt….I wonder what are the statistics of how many GLBT couples have children compared with heterosexual couples.
That would be another interesting statistic to see I bet :0) Children can be quite costly these days.
Ok I just read bits of this out to my best friend and she pointed out something interesting:
How many of those couples are two men? (as opposed to two women)
If on average men earn more than women and are less likely to take time away from their career to care for sick relatives or raise children, it’s no surprise that a gay couple would earn more than a straight couple which traditionally the female partner is earning less.
That’s an interesting point. Your best friends sounds like quite the thinker 😀 I’m not sure what the ratio of male couples vs female couples is. It’s quite telling when a study meant to answer one question actually ends up producing many more questions that are now being asked :S
Interesting observation about gay people! There do seem to be quite a lot of successful gay couples….I guess I haven’t really thought about it much though.
Yeah anecdotally I don’t know of any unsuccessful gay couples.
You cannot assert that GLBT couples are better with their money without accounting for (a) children which are very rare in such relationships and in a straight relationship, will generally end up with one parent taking a work break which also means a promotion break and (b) the stability of the relationship where I suspect (without any proof) that GLBT relationships, once the couple find each other, may be more stable than heterosexual partnerships where the divorce/splitup rate approaches 30%.
Until these – and other issues that I haven’t thought about yet – are removed from the model, it is difficult to draw any conclusions.
It is an interesting question though!
Ahh! But are they more financially secure, or better with their money? I think the report answers the 1st question nicely, i.e. yes they are, but the second question is entirely different. Kids, breaks from work etc. are reasons for the first answer but factors to be removed in the second
That’s my point. You need to calibrate a model – which will be very complex – and remove the effect of relationship type.
And anyway, while kids are expensive and career breaks may be conditionally dependent on them (it is possible to have a career break for other reasons of course), kids can bring great joy and fun and games into a family. Couples without kids miss out on all this, which will affect GLBT couples a lot more.
In the end it is quality of life that matters, not money. There are plenty of rich people who are miserable as sin and comfort themselves in the next Ferrari while there are poor people who have wonderful families on next to nothing. So GLBT couples may well be richer but are they happier?
I did take your original point, but then where do you stop? People are so individual you could probably split the whole thing down into sets of 1 LOL!
You’re right about kids though. I’ve been a Dad for 2 years now, and I’m absolutely loving it. Would I swap him for a ferrari? nah! Would I swap the Mrs for a ferrari? Probably, but then perhaps that’s why homosexual people are called “gay”?? 😉
Great points you two :0)