Why I love the WSJ

I love The Wall Street Journal. I like it not just for its financial news, but also for stories like this (free WSJ Digg link). At least twice a week, it runs great stories like this that have nothing to do with finance, but that are absolutely engrossing. For other sites/authors I visit/read see the right side of the page.

Who are the mass affluent?

In customer segmentation models, 'mass affluent' consumers are often slotted in above the middle class, or mass market, but below the really wealthy, or high net worth. I would characterize the mass affluent segment as upper middle class. Different financial services companies use different definitions of 'mass affluent' consumers. Some, like Charles Schwab, use $100,000 to $1 million in investable (liquid) assets as the criteria for group membership. Other companies use a lower limit of $250,000 or $500,000 in investable assets. (The upper limit also varies, from $1mm to $3mm. Above that level of investable assets, financial services firms consider these customers high net worth clients, and these customers are probably serviced by a special team. At the $30mm to $50mm level, these customers are considered ultra high net worth, and are probably serviced by a private bank.)

On this site, I'll talk about retirement, banking and brokerages, and try to discuss the topics from a mass affluent perspective. I hope that my words will be entertaining and interesting. I also like to talk about travel, so this won't strictly be a personal finance site. I may wander into real estate and other topics from time to time. I welcome feedback.