Mustached Americans Want Help with Finances

Financial advisers take note: Mustached Americans are looking to better their savings habits.

More than half of mustache-wearers would consider seeking out counsel about personal finances, according to a survey commissioned by the American Mustache Institute (AMI), a tongue-in-cheek organization “protecting the rights of, and fighting discrimination against, mustached Americans” and Quicken, a provider of personal finance software.

Mustached Americans might feel the need to get their finances in order because their spending habits have left them fewer savings than their bearded and shaven friends. Despite earning 8.2% more than those with beards and 4.3% more than the clean-shaven, mustached Americans show an average 3% lower savings rate than the non-mustached, the research found.

The survey concluded that the “lavish Mustached American lifestyle” is a key contributor to lower savings among individuals in this facial hair cohort.

What do mustached individuals buy? According to AMI, the majority of Mustached Americans’ disposable income was spent on toiletries such as condoms, cologne, and teeth-whitening solutions (10%) and alcoholic beverages such as Budweiser beer and Rich & Rare Canadian Whisky (11%).

“If efficiencies in financial management could be realized in the near-term, it’s highly probable that over the next four to five years, we will see Mustached Americans’ savings rate grow to surpass their bearded and shaven peers,” said research consultant Hans Menjou-Bärtchen.

Menjou-Bärtchen Research Consultants conducted the survey during the first six months of 2009 using a random sample of 2,000 mustached Americans, 2,000 bearded Americans, and 2,000 clean-shaven Americans.

The study is available here.


New York Life to Expand DCIO Team

New York Life Investments plans to hire three new vice presidents and one internal sales representative for its defined contribution investment-only (DCIO) team in the next month or two.

The current team, run by Jeff Keller, managing director of the firm’s DCIO group, consists of three professionals who are based out of Parsippany, New Jersey. The team, which currently has $2.3 billion in assets under management, will remain responsible for the distribution of the MainStay Funds as well as a brand new initiative distributing New York Life’s stable value products into the defined contribution marketplace, New York Life said.

“Our current DCIO team of three professionals has been very successful to date and has done a tremendous job of getting us to this point. By adding a regional sales staff we will better equipped to capitalize on the demand for quality funds from trusted managers,” said Keller.

«