Nevin's Data "Points"

One of the things I enjoyed most about writing/publishing NewsDash over a 16-year span (12 years at PLANSPONSOR, and four before that as an internal email) was doing a weekly survey – on a wide variety of topics, both serious – and not-so-serious. My favorite of the “regular” surveys (and there weren’t many that repeated, even over all that time) was the annual survey of holiday movies. And while there were certain perennial favorites, it seemed like every year there was a real “battle” for the top slot among readers. As for this year – well, the survey was admittedly a bit ad hoc – but the results were just as fun. So, here’s the top 5: Christmas Vacation (26.1%) It’s a Wonderful Life (15.2%) Elf (13.0%) How the Grinch Stole Christmas (4.3%) A Charlie Brown Christmas (4.3%) …asked to choose a second favorite, It’s a Wonderful Life and Elf tied for first, with 14% of the vote. You can check out the NewsDash survey from 2010 at http://www.plansponsor.com/SURVEY_SAYS_What_is_Your_Fa...

Editor’s Note: There’s so much going on in the world of retirement saving and investing that I never feel the need (or feel like I have the opportunity) to recycle old columns – but this one has a certain “evergreen” consistency of message that always seems appropriate – particularly at this time of year. A few years back—when my kids still believed in the reality of Santa Claus—we discovered an ingenious Web site. This was a Web site that purported to offer a real-time assessment of your "naughty or nice" status. Now, as Christmas approached, it was not uncommon for us to caution our occasionally misbehaving brood that they had best be attentive to how those actions might be viewed by the big guy at the North Pole. But nothing ever had the impact of that Web site - if not on their behaviors (they're kids, after all), then certainly on the level of their concern about the consequences. In fact, in one of his final years as a "believer," my son (who, it must ...