Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise

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Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise

In 1900, there were fewer than 5,000 million-dollar households in the United States. Today, there are 8 million. Of the 691 billionaires in the world, 346 live in the United States.

In 1900, a male born in the United States had a life expectancy of 48 years. Today, it’s 76 years – effectively double the 38 years’ life expectancy of a male born in 1850.

In 1900, 38% of all jobs were farming-related, just 13% of the United States population had high school degrees, and only 3% had college degrees. In 2005, 85% of US adults had a high school degree and 24% had a college degree.

With a population that’s getting older, is more affluent, and is more knowledgeable as a nation, we believe there will be booming opportunities for service and product companies that help people feel younger.

Fitness centers and spas, personal trainers, nutritionists, and plastic surgeons all benefit from this theme. Chinese traditional medicine (CTM) – using natural ingredients and thousands of years of knowledge – is experiencing growth. A full 16.5 million people practice yoga in the United States, up 43% since 2002, according to Yoga Journal. Time magazine reported that 10 million American adults meditate daily, up 100% in 10 years. There’s a convergence of holistic medicine with people wishing to feel younger and live longer.

A society that is growing in its affluence needs tailored financial services such as wealth management, tax planning, and money management, in our opinion. Family offices (offices set up to handle the financial affairs of a wealthy family) historically were realistic only for the Rockefellers, Gettys, and their ilk, but will be made available for a growing part of the population, in our opinion.

People living longer and getting richer, and globalization making the earth a smaller place, will enable travel services to flourish, in our opinion. Cruise ships providing entertainment and knowledge exploration as well as specialty travel providers such as Backroads that offer unique travel experiences are on-trend. Boutique hotels such as Kimpton and high-end branded hotels like The Four Seasons (TSX: FSH, $90.72 – Not Rated) that make travelers feel at home benefit as well.

Historically, a person graduating from college and then working for an employer until retiring at age 65 was considered normal. Today, the average person coming out of college will have 12 employers before retirement. It is typical for someone retiring today to live another 20-30 years. What happens when people routinely live to be 100? Well, things might not change too much considering there’s a growing trend of people retiring in their 70s or later. Why? It’s due to financial reasons such as the elimination of pensions, and people being more active and healthy well into their 70s.

No longer can people graduate from school and “drive off” to life – they will need to continue to fill up their knowledge tank throughout their career to stay relevant in the job. Lifelong learning will be a core fundamental to anybody in business in the future. Continuing education will be part of this, but learning new skills and adapting to a global marketplace in a knowledge-based economy will be critical to survive and thrive, in our opinion.

We believe online learning and training providers will continue to enjoy tremendous growth. Conferences and knowledge networks will be integrated into workers’ ongoing job program.

For the first time in nine weeks, stocks lost ground last week catalyzed by rising interest rates around the world. Fears of faster growth and inflation drove the 10-year note above 5% to 5.10%. For the week NASDAQ was off 1.5%, the Dow was down 1.8%, the S&P 500 was off 1.9%, and the Russell 2000 was down 2.1%.

Advancers trailed decliners by nearly 1 to 5 on the NYSE and over 1 to 2 on the NASDAQ. Companies making new highs versus new lows were 789 to 285. Stock mutual funds received $3.3 billion of inflows. We remain bullish.

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Posted by Michael Moe at Jun 11, 07 12:04 PM | Permalink

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Michael, I touched on the

Michael,
I touched on the subject in my blog on how teens use the Internet with the following comment.
I would like us to consider the other end of the spectrum, that in 2006, 50% of the U.S. population was over 50 years old and by 2010 that number will reach 60% of the total U.S. population.
I couldn't agree more with you comments and to date I think this group has been ignored by those selling products and services when compared to the 18-34 year old age group.

PeteI – June 12, 2007 04:49 AM

This requires investment in

This requires investment in products that assist those who are aging. Look to Assistive Technologies for a huge potential growth market.

ltglv – June 12, 2007 02:19 PM

Michael, while I wouldn't

Michael,
while I wouldn't want to dispute the point you are making in your post, I think the figures you are using are somewhat misleading. Without any reference to relative head count of the population and to relative net value of the dollar, the number of millionaire and billionaire households does not really say a lot. I do cocur with your opinion that affluence has gone way up, but the evidence you submit does not really stand up under close scrutiny. Felt I had to count this bean ...
Christian

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