when logic & proportion have fallen sloppy

Big numbers are difficult to grasp…and here is an exercise to demonstrate this fact. For those of you who know me then you have probably been through this before – sorry, in advance.

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Question 1: If you had exactly a million dollars and spent a dollar a second, how long would it take for you to spend the whole million?

Answer: Approximately 11 days.

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Question 2: If you had exactly a billion dollars and spent a dollar a second, how long would it take for you to spend the whole billion?

Answer: Approximately 31.7 years!

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Question 3: If you had exactly a trillion dollars and spend a dollar a second, how long would it take for you to spend the whole trillion?

Answer: Approximately 31,688 years!!

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So as an investor, when you hear about the U.S. Federal Government’s deficit is in the trillions of dollars, just know that is a hell of a lot of money. Also know that future generations of Americans owe that money to the creditors who have lent our country the money and that is a hell of a burden. Yikes!

So as an investor, when you hear about an emergency financial bailout package that is budgeted to cost $700 billion, just know that it will take ~ 22,181 years of a dollar being spent every second to payback those bailout monies. Yikes!

Sorry, I don’t mean to be depressing. Just know that a billion is a lot more than a million and that a trillion is…geez…even more!

Jason