I received an email yesterday from Ally Bank asking me what I would do with $10,000. I clicked through to find an infographic summarizing the data collected from 1022 people over the age of 18 in the continental United States. What I found was rather interesting, but what truly peaked my interest was the way in which Ally presented the data.
Ally Asks: What Would You Do With $10,000? [INFOGRAPHIC]. Check out this story and more at Straight Talk, the official blog of Ally Bank.
The choices were save, invest, pay off debt, or spend the money. About a third said they would save it, while another fifth said they’d invest it, and yet another fifth said they would use it to pay down debt. I found it pretty surprising that over 50% of respondents said they would either save or invest it. I have to hope that those people don’t have high interest debts they need to pay off, but I’m skeptical that less than half of the respondents have no credit card debt.
Then I looked closer and marveled at the fact that they didn’t list the percentage of people who would spend the money. If you add up the percentages, you’re left with 28% of the respondents saying they’d spend the money. That makes it the second most popular answer, yet it’s swept under the rug, as if Ally is hoping you won’t notice it.
Why? Clearly Ally has an agenda: they want you to save more money and they want you to save it with them. Is the idea that by down-playing the proportion of people who said they’d spend the money and highlighting more responsible choices, they hope you’ll look more favorably on the responsible choices so when you get a windfall at some point you’ll be more likely to save with them? Or are they trying to make you feel guilty by showing you that the majority of people would do something responsible with the money, so you should too?
What do you think?
Graduating college and starting a new life on your own is a scary time. If you’re like most students, you already have debt to refinance, and you certainly don’t have piles of cash sitting around for you to splurge on a nice apartment, high-end furniture, and fancy work clothes yet. If you’re lucky enough to have a job lined up, your future is a bit more secure, but that’s no reason to become complacent about your finances.
This is a guest post by Stewart Bradley, following up on 
