Relationships and dating constitute a major amount of time and effort in single people’s lives. The American culture tends to lean toward the nuclear family model of a husband, wife, and children. The common steps in order to reach the goal of building this nuclear family tends to be to graduate college, get a high-paying job, work on a thriving career, meet the person of your dreams, get married, have children, and live happily ever after. While these steps may seem extremely simple, with the immense diversification and sheer population of the United States, it is difficult for many people to find their own way in society, much less locate a person that they can be assured that they will fall in love with forever and that will fall in love with them the exact same way.
Since women have worked hard in past decades to define themselves as equal to men, the traditional role of the man as being the courtier of women is becoming antiquated. More than ever, women are taking an incredibly active approach in searching for and approaching men to possibly start a relationship with. Today’s women are more educated, more goal-driven, and more financially secure than women of the past decades so they typically are not searching for a provider in a man as much as they are searching for a soul mate. It is for this reason that today’s women highly value a man’s integrity and personality, as in the past these traits may have taken a backseat to other, more immediate concerns such as the man possessing job security and the means to start a family. Since today’s women aren’t looking for another person to fulfill their basic needs, they can afford to become infinitely choosier about the men that they forge relationships with.
Today’s men have accepted today’s women’s outlook on life and well-educated men often prefer a woman that is headstrong and able to accomplish her goals as well as take care of herself. Today’s man is able to show women who he is when he’s looking for relationship rather than simply showcasing what he can provide, as was the case for his grandfather and perhaps even his father. Since men today are able to concentrate more on themselves than early generations, it has led some to believe that the modern man is not as capable as his predecessors, but this certainly isn’t true. Like women are able to better search for a man that fits her personality, the man of today is able to look for a woman that will compliment him and be a companion as well as simply a potential mate.
Dating in the modern times requires a certain level of understanding that in age of the World Wide Web and nearly instant gratification and choice, many people will search for years to find just the person that they are looking for. As a result, dating has become an even larger part in the traditional flow chart in between childhood and marriage, making it a much larger part of American’s lives.
In an ever changing and uncertain economy and job market, American workers have to become more economically savvy in order to secure financial stability. The Social Security system has been said to have ballooned to crisis proportions leaving many that pay into the program fearing or even expecting that benefits entitled to them will not be available by the time they reach the age of retirement. Fiscally-conscious Americans have taken their financial futures into their own hands by conducting research upon and making smart decisions on investing in assets that they will count on to secure their future. Common investment means consist primarily of 401(k)s, mutual funds, and the stock market.
401(k)s
401(k)s are retirement accounts commonly offered by employers to their employees that enables the employee to invest in the stock market, money market, and bonds spread over multiple separate investments. One of the most appealing aspects of 401(k)s is that they are tax-deferred methods of investments that allow employees to contribute up to a certain monetary amount each year without being taxed on the dividends until they are paid out. 401(k)s can be rolled over with the employee if they leave their job, further adding to the appeal. If the employee decides to withdraw a portion or all of their 401(k) holdings before the age of 59 ½ , they are subjected to a steep excise tax equivalent to 10% of the money withdrawn.
Mutual Funds
Mutual funds are handled by fund managers for investors and are an attractive option for those that prefer to spread their investments over a large area of different companies and commodities. Investors can determine percentages of how much of their mutual funds they would like to be invested aggressively, moderately, and conservatively in order to maintain a level of control. Mutual funds have exploded in popularity in recent years because of the relatively static amount of return that fund managers have been able to supply to mutual fund investors, which can sometimes reach as high as 12% or higher per year. Typically in mutual funds, the fund manager is responsible for all trading of the underlying commodities of each fund and distributes the assets back out to the investors. Naturally, competent fund managers are extremely popular and the risk entailed in mutual funds is many times in selecting the fund managers.
Stock Markets
Stock markets are marketplaces used to trade, buy, and sell a percentage of companies known as company stock. Stock markets can be real structures, such as the New York Stock Exchange or virtual exchanges such as websites that deal with trades. Professional stock traders work feverishly in order to research and speculate on the financial health of companies in order to bring their investors the highest return for their money invested. Stock markets can be highly volatile manners of investments for the casual investor and even seasoned investing veterans since it is wholly unpredictable and so much money is at stake. The stock markets depend on active trading and especially healthy buying markets to thrive and produce a “bull” market. A “bear” market refers to the times that investors are selling more stock than buying, making stock prices plummet. Many investors become what is known as “day traders” and speculate, buy, and sell stock for a living from their own home or office through the use of trading websites. While this has been a highly effective method for many, it is not recommended for casual investors that know little about stock markets and their idiosyncrasies.