Getty Images stock

The workplace jerk isn’t just an annoyance; he or she is also potentially a killer.

A study released this month showing that the risk of an early death is greatly reduced for people with high levels of social support on the job got many loyal Life Inc. readers talking about the importance of working with good people.

Conventional wisdom has typically held that one way to land a good job - though not necessarily good co-workers - is to go to college. But these days, some are questioning that logic. One entrepreneur thinks he has a solution: Just skip it.

A post this month about a guy who’s paying students to pursue their dreams instead of their degrees definitely got your attention. Still, the majority of you saw it as a stunt rather than a serious way to debate the merits of college, according to our online poll.

We do know that college students are more likely to make better salaries over their lifetime, but will they spend it wisely?

A study that concluded that half of Americans may not be able to come up with $2,000 in an emergency prompted a heated debate over how easy it is to save for a rainy day in this tough economy – no matter what your income level is.

Here’s how some rich people keep their emergency fund stocked: by being frugal. A post about how wealthy people are more like to be online bargain hunters also got you talking about the virtues of looking for a good deal.

Also this month, David Bach offered some simple advice for getting rid of credit card telemarketers and Sharon Epperson had tips for maximizing your frequent flyer miles.

If you’re like most people, you didn’t really mind coming back to work after the holiday weekend.

That’s right, you read that correctly.

Despite the worst recession since the Great Recession, a new Gallup poll finds that most of us - who have jobs - are satisfied with them.

The percentage of American workers who say they are satisfied with their jobs has fallen only slightly since January of 2008, to 87.5 percent, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.

The percent of workers satisfied in their jobs was at 89.4 percent in February of 2008, and hit a recent low of 86.9 percent last summer.

In general, if you make more money you are likely to be more content with your job. The survey found that 91.9 percent of people earning $90,000 or more a year are satisfied with their job. But just 82.1 percent of people making less than $36,000 a year reported that they were satisfied with their jobs.

College graduates were also more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than those with less than a high school diploma, and whites are more likely to be satisfied at work than any other racial group. Men and women report pretty equal levels of job satisfaction in the 2011 survey.

Of course, there are millions of Americans out there who are unsatisfied with their lack of work. About 13.7 million Americans are currently unemployed, about 6 million more than in January of 2008.

The Great Recession has sometimes been called the “Mancession” for the huge numbers of men who lost their jobs during the economic downturn. That goes double for veterans, especially male veterans, who left the military since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a new report from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee shows.

The report, released on Memorial Day, says the unemployment rate among veterans who served on active duty since that fateful day almost 10 years ago averaged 11.5 percent in 2010, versus a jobless rate of 8.7 percent for all veterans and a 9.4 percent rate for non-vets. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for April 2011 put the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans at 10.9 percent, compared with the 7.7 percent rate for all veterans and 8.5 percent for non-veterans.

The congressional report also states that the current unemployment rate for post-9/11 male veterans between 25-54 years old is 9.9 percent. It’s even starker for younger male veterans between 18 to 24 years old: 26.9 percent. Four-fifths, or 81 percent, of recent veterans are male and most leave active duty during their prime working years of 25 to 54.

Why have male veterans been hit so hard by joblessness? Aside from the numbers, the report says the skills these veterans received in the military translate into experience for industries that were hit particularly hard by the Great Recession: mining, construction, manufacturing, transportation, utilities, information and professional and business services. They were less likely to be employed in sectors that added jobs during the recession such as education and health services.

In addition, many went on to work in the public sector because of programs that placed an emphasis on hiring veterans. The report says that 30 percent of recent veterans work in the public sector, versus 14.8 percent for non-veterans. “Although Post‐9/11 veterans are only slightly more likely than nonveterans to work in state or local government, ongoing budget shortfalls and a

slowdown in hiring by state and local governments could adversely affect veterans’ employment in the future,” the report says.

Tip of the hat to the New York Times “At War” blog for highlighting the report.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

In general, people in their 20s don’t save much money by getting married but they do spend less than their single friends on certain things.

Like alcohol.

A new report from the number crunchers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that overall, 21- to 29-year-olds spend about the same amount overall whether they are married or single.

But while single people were spending more on fun stuff, like alcohol and food, married people were spending more on mundane services like transportation, health care and personal insurance, according to the report, based on survey data from 2008 and 2009.

The cost savings associated with marriage appear to kick in once people reach their late twenties.

A typical married person 21 to 23 years old spends more on average than a single person of the same age ($21,138 and $19,980 a year, respectively). But it’s worth noting that the average income for married people in that age range was about one-third higher than for single people.

The tables turn when you look at people who are 27 to 29. In that age group, married people spent an average of $27,816 per person per year while a single people spent $35,026 on average. Income levels for 27- to 29-year-olds were about the same regardless of marital status.

It’s college graduation season, which means many young hopefuls are out there trying to snag their first real job.

Here’s a little piece of advice, courtesy of some managers who have apparently seen it all: Don’t let Mom and Dad be part of the process.

A recent survey of managers, conducted by the temp service OfficeTeam, found that managers have witnessed everything from a parent who wanted to sit in on an interview to one who called afterward to find out why their offspring didn’t get the job.

We’re going to go out on a limb and guess that these techniques didn’t necessarily work out so well for the candidate.

Of course parents want to help their kids get the right start in life, and experts say Mom and Dad can and should talk to their kids about career goals, resume writing and interview etiquette. But they should draw the line at things like attending job interviews, negotiating salaries or pressuring pals to give their kids a job.

“It’s important for the teen or young adult to find her own job. If a parent stays out of it, kids learn the difficulty of finding a job, an important discovery," Susan Smith Kuczmarski, author of “The Sacred Flight of the Teenager: A Parent’s Guide to Stepping Back and Letting Go," told msnbc.com career columnist Eve Tahmincioglu in a story on this subject last year.

Here’s what some of the managers said when they were asked about unusual parental behavior.

• "One parent wanted to sit in during the interview."
• "A parent called a politician to push me to hire his son."
• "A mother submitted her daughter's resume on her behalf."
• "A parent called during the interview to try to push me to hire her daughter."
• "A parent came by my desk and told me that he expected his daughter to get preference for a position since he was a manager at the company."
• "A parent called to find out why we did not hire her son and why we felt he was not qualified."

The OfficeTeam survey is based on interviews with more than 1,300 senior managers in the U.S. and Canada, conducted earlier this year.

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

Malia, second from left, and Sasha Obama will have a well-funded education. Their parents have invested between $100,000 and $250,000 in a 529 college savings plan for the two girls.

President Barack Obama and his family appear to have gotten a bit wealthier over the past year, but they are taking few chances when it comes to investing their millions.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, had assets valued between $2.8 million and $11.8 million in 2010, according to their recently released financial disclosure report (.pdf file). That range was higher than what they reported for 2009, when their disclosure form reported assets between $2.3 million and $7.7 million.

(The Obamas are allowed to be somewhat vague about their financial situation, hence the wide range in values.)

The bulk of the Obamas' wealth is invested in about the most conservative way possible, helping to fund the ballooning federal debt by buying Treasury securities, which currently pay from about 0.25 percent annually for short-term bills to a bit over 3 percent for 10-year notes.

The couple has between $1.1 million and $5.25 million invested in Treasury bills. An additional $1 million to $5 million is held in Treasury notes.

Other highlights:

• The president had between $250,001 and $500,000 in his JPMorgan Chase checking account.
• The Obamas aren't playing it crazy when it comes to stocks — between $200,000 and $450,000 is invested in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund.
• Royalties from the president's two books — "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" — totaled between $1 million and $5 million last year. In comparison, his annual salary is $400,000.
• The couple's children will have a well-funded education. Between $100,000 and $250,000 is invested in a 529 plan for  daughters Sasha and Malia.

TODAY

TODAY Money expert David Bach, author of the book "Debt Free for Life," joined us for a live Web chat Wednesday morning after the show's Money 911 segment.

Here are two of his answers to questions from the live chat. See below for the full Q&A and video of the Money 911 segment.

Guest's question:
I often get credit card companies calling me by phone. They say they can reduce my interest rate if I pay in full. I always pay my bill in full and have good credit. I feel as if they are trying to make me pay early to get a lower interest rate which to me seems wrong because I am an EXCELLENT customer. Any thoughts?

David's answer:
Love this question. I have a really simple answer: Tell them to stop calling you! By law, if you ask credit card companies to take you off their call list they have to or it’s criminal. If it's your credit card company and not a new company bugging you, ask them why they are bothering you with this. Again, tell them to stop. Good luck! You have rights -- and they know it.

Tam's question: 
I have a $65,000 in student loan with the interest rate of 6.8 percent. Is it possible to use my credit cards to pay off my student loans and then file bankruptcy to start off fresh again?

David's answer: 
So that's a new one! The real point here that you clearly understand is that bankruptcy doesn't wipe out student loans but it can wipe out credit card debt. The courts can, however, review your behavior and choose to not give you a clean slate. 

What you are talking about is really fraud. While it may sound creative, it's still illegal. It would be the same as taking a $65,000 vacation with the intention to then go bankrupt. Not legally acceptable. But glad you asked -- now go work on paying off the student loans. Good luck!

Complete archive:

If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here.

To sign up for an e-mail reminder for our next chat, click here.

Watch this week's Money 911 segment:

Peter Thiel

There’s been a lot of talk recently about whether it’s worth it to go to college, given the high cost and potentially heavy student loan burden that comes with that diploma.

Now, an entrepreneur has launched a fellowship that aims to test that theory by paying people not to go to school.

The co-founder of online pocketbook PayPal, Peter Thiel, on Wednesday announced the winners of a fellowship that will pay nearly two dozen students $100,000 not to attend college for two years.

The catch? (There’s always a catch.) The 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship winners have to spend the time working on their scientific and technical innovations. They’ll be aided by a host of high-profile advisors who will teach the kids about disruptive technologies, mentor them and provide support and training (but don’t call it school!).

These aren’t just any 20 people, of course.

The foundation’s website said the winners include Andrew Hsu, who started at the University of Washington at age 12 and was, at age 19, pursuing his Ph.D. at Stanford when he left to work on his startup.

Darren Zhu is dropping out of Yale to pursue his interest in synthetic biology, and 19-year-old Eden Full has already founded a solar energy startup. Laura Deming enrolled at MIT at age 14 and is working on ways to extend the human lifespan by hundreds of years.

Thiel announced the fellowship plan last fall, in a press release packed with quotes from tech luminaries who extolled the virtues of dropping out.

Thiel himself seems fairly convinced that his experiment could change the world – or at least empower someone else to. In a statement announcing the contest last fall, he noted some of the major technologies that had been developed by people who dropped out of school, and predicted that his group would do the same.

“The Thiel fellows will change the world and call it a senior thesis,” he said in the statement.

AP

Despite the current zeitgeist in which men are light-beer ad oafs who aren’t even smart enough to understand the latest Judd Apatow movie aping (pun intended) them, it seems the recession may have sharpened some bros’ life skills.

Supermarket News reports that although fewer men than women have changed what they spend on in the downturn, 54 percent of guys are adjusting by doing things like eating out less. In addition, 35 percent shop multiple stores to find the lowest price.

They also, apparently, are only buying the things they need rather than having a survivalist cache of stuff (oh no, what will this mean for Costco?).

“Our research shatters the stereotype of clueless men wandering around a grocery store,” John McIndoe, executive of the company who conducted the research, told SN in a statement.

It’s something we’ll ponder next time we’re filling our cart with Hungry-Mans in the frozen food aisle. Hey! What are you looking at? This is for lunch at work. Cafeteria food is lousy and expensive! We cook!

Guys, how do you shop at the grocery store? Ladies, how do you see men shopping at the grocery store?

OECD

Your Better Life Index

Here’s a deep question: How good is life in the country you live in?

Most of the time, economists and experts answer a question like that by looking at statistics such as gross domestic product or the unemployment rate.

Now, a new index from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is taking a look at quality of life from a broader, and more nuanced, perspective.

The “Your Better Life Index,” a website launching Tuesday, examines the usual markers that life is good, such as housing, income and jobs. But the interactive index of the OECD’s 34 member countries also seeks to quantify how well people live based on more complex factors, such as work-life balance, safety, community and life satisfaction.

So where does the U.S. fall? In areas such as income, housing and governance, we do pretty well. Also, 70 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with their lives, compared with an OECD average of 59 percent.

We fall lower in the rankings in areas such as work-life balance, where we’re outpaced by countries including Canada, Luxembourg and Australia. That maybe partly because we work slightly more hours a year than the OECD average, and we also are the only OECD country that doesn’t have a national paid parental leave policy.

We fare even worse when it comes to health. Our life expectancy – at 77.9 years – is actually one year below the OECD average, and we spend much more than other countries on health care. On the other hand, we are much more likely to self-report that we are in good health.

Curious to see how good life might be in Turkey, Portugal or Slovenia? Take a look at the interactive index here.

Getty Images

Could you come up with $2,000? You'd probably need more to cover major repairs on your Mustang.

How long would it take you to come up with $2,000 in cash? Could you do it at all?

Half of all U.S. households say they "certainly" or "probably" could not come up with the funds to cope with such an ordinary financial emergency, according to a new study on financial fragility.

The lack of emergency resources is not just a problem of the impoverished but also affects many “solidly middle-class” families, according to the study just published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Of households making between $100,000 and $150,000 annually, nearly one-quarter said they "certainly" or "probably" would be unable to come up with the $2,000.

The study was done by asking a random sample of 2,100 adults, “How confident are you that you could come up with $2,000 if an unexpected need arose within the next month?” The amount was meant to suggest a major car repair, a co-pay on a medical expense or a home repair. It is far lower than the three to six months' worth of expenses that financial planners typically recommend people have in savings.

Yet 28 percent of respondents said they “certainly” would be unable to cope with the $2,000 expense, while 22 percent said they “probably” would be unable.

The survey was conducted in 2009 near the depths of the Great Recession, but the findings were broadly consistent with other data about Americans’ financial resources.

According to the Federal Reserve’s 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances, for example, about 42 percent of Americans had less than $2,000 in checking, savings and money market funds. A Pew survey in 2009 also found that 42 percent of respondents said they "often don’t have enough money to make ends meet.”

The authors, led by Annamaria Lusardi of the George Washington School of Business, suggest the government could do a better job of encouraging short-term emergency savings, perhaps by providing tax advantages to savers, similar to the tax breaks enjoyed by homeowners and stock market investors.

The study notes that in comparison with other Western countries, Americans are among the most financially fragile, along with Germans and Britons. Survey respondents in Canada, the Netherlands and Italy were considered the least fragile, with less than 30 percent saying they would be unlikely to come up with $2,000 or 1,500 euros in an emergency.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

The total cost of health care for a typical American family of four will hit $19,393 this year. That's more than double what it was in 2002.

While the rising cost of health care has slowed compared with prior years, the average household covered by a preferred provider plan will pay 7.3 percent more for health care this year than it did in 2010, according to the annual Milliman Medical Index report (.pdf file).

Furthermore, employees' share of the tab for health insurance coverage continues to grow, effectively doubling over the last nine years, according to the index. The typical worker paid $3,634 (36.8 percent of the bil) for coverage in 2002. This year the tab is $8,008 (39.7 percent of the total).

The report points out that coming health-care reform will affect the cost trends measured by the index. Premium rates for some people will be affected, but the overall impact on the cost of health care is expected to be limited.

Jason Reed / Reuters

Warren Buffett, among the world's wealthiest people, is known for his modest spending habits, including the fact that he still owns the same Omaha, Neb., home he bought in 1958.

Apparently, Warren Buffett's thrifty billionaire ways extend to other high earners as well.

A new survey of online shopping habits finds that people with annual household incomes of $75,000 and above are more likely to bargain shop online than their lower-earning counterparts.

The study was conducted by Synovate eNation on behalf of Steelhouse, which helps companies with online marketing strategies.

The survey found that 37 percent of the high earners check out coupon sites, compared with 24 percent of those who make less than $25,000 a year.

Nearly one-third of the highest earners said they buy only when there's a discount, about the same amount who said they buy only when there's free shipping. By comparison, only about one-fourth of the lowest earners said they did those things.

In general, as household income went up, so did the percentage of respondents who said they use those bargain shopping tactics.

The wealthier respondents were also more likely to read product reviews and to buy premium brands, according to the survey.

Buffett, among the world's wealthiest people, is known for his modest spending habits, including the fact that he still owns the same Omaha, Neb., home he bought in 1958 (although he also has a house in Laguna Beach, Calif.).

The poll was based on an online survey of 1,000 adult U.S. shoppers, and had a margin of error of three percentage points.

Gallup

As gas prices rise, more than half of Americans say they have made changes to their lifestyle, according to a new Gallup poll.

The most common adjustment: driving less.

Nearly 67 percent of Americans say the cost of fuel has caused financial hardships in their households (shown in the graph above). Low-income Americans are most likely to say rising prices are causing financial hardships.

The poll, conducted May 12-15, found that among the 53 percent of Americans who report having made major lifestyle changes, 16 percent are cutting back on vacation travel, 15 percent are being more careful in planning errands and local trips, and 15 percent have either purchased a more fuel-efficient vehicle or are considering it. Smaller segments report doing less "leisure driving," more carpooling, using public transportation, walking more, biking more and driving more slowly.

Twelve percent of those making major changes say they are cutting back on groceries, clothes and other expenses to absorb the higher fuel costs.

Are you making any changes to your lifestyle? Please leave your comments below.

CNBC's Sharon Epperson joined TODAY for a live web chat Wednesday morning following her Money 911 appearance.

She began the chat with a discussion about her upcoming CNBC special report, Travel Dollars. It's about how more people are staying put, either through staycations or staying in the country this summer. Find more info about Travel Dollars here.

Watch her on CNBC starting at 9 a.m. ET and follow her on Twitter.

Here are two questions from her chat and the complete archive:

Laura's question: 
Frequent flyer miles are great when/if you can actually use them when you want to travel. The only program that I've had good luck with is Southwest Airlines. 

Sharon's answer:
You're so right. About 25,000 miles doesn't always get you a free ticket like it used to. Here are some great ideas on how to make the most of you frequent flier miles here. 

One tip: Take advantage of the airline or credit card company's desire to build loyalty. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to stick around as a customer. Capital One has a great program to lure customers with immediate 100,000 mile reward -- but once you have the card, that doesn't mean you have to make a lot of charges on it. Just use it to get a ticket and stick it in a drawer.

Heather's question:
I have a 1-year-old daughter who has received money as gifts. What is our best investment option for her? Should we open a savings account in her name? Or should we open a college savings account?

Sharon's answer:
I think you should open two accounts. With a Uniformed Gift to Minors or Uniform Trust to Minors account (UGMA, UTMA), you can invest in whatever you'd like and the money will go to your daughter when she turns 18. Go to your bank or a low-cost brokerage firm like Fidelity, Vanguard or T Rowe Price to learn more.

Also definitely look into opening a 529 college savings account for your one-year-old. Time is on your side and you can often get a state tax deduction if you invest in a 529 plan in your state. Also if this child doesn't go to college, you can always switch the account to another beneficiary -- another child or even yourself.

Complete archive:

If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here.

To sign up for an e-mail reminder for our next chat, click here.

Watch this week's Money 911 segment:

Jeff Roberson / AP

If Panera Bread pay-what-you-can experiment serves as a test for a people's inner goodness, it appears honesty usually wins out. The company says 60 percent of people leave the suggested amount, and 20 percent leave more.

Hungry but short on cash? You might be in luck if you live near one of the three Panera Bread locations that allow customers to pay what they can for their meals.

These cafes, which serve as part of the nonprofit arm for the St. Louis-based chain, rely on customers' sense of goodness and honesty to raise money for charitable programs. Instead of a tradtional menu and cash register, you can leave a lone penny or a fat wad of Benjamins in a donation box. The three locations (Clayton, Mo.; Dearborn, Mich.; and Portland Ore.) each bring in between $3,000 to $4,000 above costs.

This pay-what-you-can form of progressive charity is far from revolutionary: Community kitchens that operate like the Panera locations can be found across the country; a nonprofit gym in Euless, Texas, offers physical therapy without a price tag; and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and other musuems have for decades eliminated ticket counters in favor of donation boxes.

There's evidence that the name-your-price model is catching on with for-profit businesses (or at least being used as a marketing ploy):

• A decade ago, Priceline.com shook up the travel industry by allowing people to name their own price for airline tickets and hotel rooms. The company has de-emphasized this service in recent years, focusing on a standard comparison search format, but it is a still a core part of Priceline's business (and advertising campaign).
• Early this spring, Gap launched a "say your price" online program where shoppers can bid for clothing and accessories. If the website accepts your bid, you can print out a coupon to use in stores.
• Progressive has trumpeted its "Name Your Price" program for auto insurance. "Get a quote, then adjust the price to find a package that's right for you," its website says. Sounds great, but what you're really doing is raising or lowering your insurance premium.
• Delta airlines lets people name their price to be bumped off flights.
• In 2007, alternative rock band Radiohead released a downloadable album, "In Rainbows," without a price tag. Fans could pay what they wanted or nothing at all.

What do you think? Is a new trend in the making? Can a true pay-what-you-can business model work for a for-profit company?

Most recent graduates are stuck taking lower-paying jobs that are less likely to offer health insurance, according to a Rutgers University poll.

Just over half of the 571 graduates of public and private four-year schools surveyed by the school have full-time jobs, while just under half said their first jobs didn’t really require bachelor’s degrees. Nearly half said their parents are helping them financially.

The college graduates in the poll left school between 2006 and 2010. The survey found that those who graduated between 2006 and 2008 fared better than those who graduated in 2009 or 2010. The earlier grads were paid about $3,000 a year more in their first jobs, and 88 percent of them received health insurance, compared with 77 percent of the more recent grads.

The findings of the poll were reported by the Associated Press.

markonefoods.com

A complete meal ... and it even comes with taffy for dessert!

By Laura T. Coffey

Does the idea of a canned sandwich that stays fresh for a full year or more fill you with longing? Queasiness? Utter fascination?

Whatever physiological response you have, now is your big chance to try a canned sandwich for yourself. The peanut-butter-and-jelly (PBJ Grape) Candwich just became available for purchase online. The grab-and-go convenience also can be snapped up at select 7-Eleven stores in Utah, and at the Rocky Mountain Bread Co. in West Jordan, Utah.

Bringing this product to market fulfills a longstanding ambition for Mark Kirkland, the founder of Mark One Foods and the entrepreneur/dreamer behind the Candwich. Kirkland has been toiling since the 1990s to arrive at this moment.

“It’s been a long, hard road,” he told TODAY.com for a story about his vision for canned convenience foods last summer. “If I didn’t really believe in the product and I didn’t have a good wife, I’d probably be dead now.”

Jac Howard

TODAY.com writer Laura T. Coffey tried a PB&J Candwich last summer. Thumbs up!

Inside the can are “shelf-stable bread” and sandwich fixings including a squeezable packet of peanut butter and another of jelly -- plus a small piece of taffy for dessert.

“We hope this will become a staple for people, especially during this time when many natural disasters are affecting us across the U.S.,” Kirkland said this month when announcing that Candwiches are now available to the masses.

When making Candwiches, Kirkland uses techniques similar to those used to preserve Meals Ready-to-Eat for soldiers. He’s also successfully made canned sandwiches and pizza pockets that have meat baked into them (although those aren’t for sale quite yet). Kirkland’s canned foods are subjected to the rigors of “hurdle technology” -- that is, hurdles to prevent the growth of any pathogens or unwanted organisms in the food. By controlling the amount of oxygen, acidity and water inside the packaging and the sandwich itself, pathogens can be stopped in their tracks, Kirkland explained.

The cans don’t need to be refrigerated or heated -- and in fact, they can even roll around in your car for months until you or a crying kid in your backseat is overcome by hunger pangs. One of Kirkland’s key target demographics? Soccer moms.

Related story: Sandwiches in a can: Can-do or can-don’t?

Maybe you could cash in your rewards points to get on the list.

According to the New York Times, the three major credit reporting agencies have a velvet rope of sorts when it comes to customer service. On one side are VIPs, including celebrities, politicians, judges and other important types, according to the Times’ research.

On the other side: You, most likely.

When you call customer service to make the case that you didn’t order any packages of jewelry shipped to Uzbekistan, you’ll get a phone tree (go figure). But when the VIPs call, they have a live human waiting for them and, according to one lawyer familiar with the practice, errors on their accounts are usually fixed immediately. You will be waiting until the next prime-numbered day after the third working Wednesday of next month.

The Times notes that regular folks may have to deal with the court system to get errors rectified.

The agencies, for their part, say that everyone has access to a live person, or deny that any dual standard exists. Or that there aren’t any VIPs, just prominent people with special circumstances.

Ever had to correct a credit mistake? How’d it go?

As if the news about the looming Social Security crisis wasn't bad enough, a new study says the Great Recession may have permanently reduced future retirees' incomes by an average of $2,300 a year.

Somewhat surprisingly it's not the nation's high unemployment rate that receives the brunt of the blame. Instead, it's the widespread slowdown in wage growth, which many economists predict will become permanent, that's having the biggest impact on our golden years' finances, according to the study.

"Wage stagnation will have serious long-term consequences if wages resume growing at their pre-recession rate since they will never make up the ground lost during the recession," said the report, which was released by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research.

Some highlights of the study:

• Workers between the ages of 25 and 34 in 2008 (the height of the recession) will see an average drop of 4.9 percent in retirement income after age 70 — a hit to their pocketbooks of roughly $3,000 a year. Furthermore, the slowdown in wage growth will accumulate over their entire careers.
• Those between the ages of 55 to 64 in 2008 will see a 4.1 percent drop in retirement income, primarily in the form of lower Social Security benefits. This problem is compounded by the fact that many older workers who lost their jobs during the recession were forced into early retirement.
• Future retirement income will fall the most for those with the highest incomes. Among the youngest age group, for example, those in the top 20 percent income bracket will lose $7,500 annually, while those in the bottom group will lose only $400 a year.
• The decline in household income will increase the number of Americans living on limited incomes at age 70. Among people between the ages of 25 to 64 in 2008, the share with incomes below 125 percent of the federal poverty level at age 70 will increase 7.4 percent. That translates into an additional 711,000 adults living in or near poverty.

The cost of a higher education has skyrocketed in recent years, and a new poll shows that many Americans are unhappy about that.

More than half of Americans think the nation’s college system is not good value for money, according to a poll released Sunday by the Pew Research Center.

Even so, most college graduates say it was worth it to them. The Pew survey found that 86 percent of college graduates thought their education had been a good investment.

Still, the financial burden of going to college is weighing heavily on Americans’ minds.

Only 22 percent said that college is affordable to most people today. Just 25 years ago, 39 percent of Americans thought college was affordable to most people.

But if they could afford it, many saw a financial reward. Adults with a college degree estimate that they make an average of $20,000 more a year because they have a college degree. By contrast, those with only a high school degree believe that they make $20,000 less a year because they don’t have a college degree.

That’s almost exactly what the U.S. Census Bureau says is the median annual difference between earnings of high school and college graduates. The unemployment rate for those with a college degree is also substantially lower than for those without.

In addition, most parents still hope their kids will go on to pursue a degree. More than 90 percent of parents with a child under 17 said they expect their kids to attend college, according to the Pew data.

Chances are most of those parents are wondering exactly how that education will be paid for. As college costs – and student loan debt – has increased in recent years, some analysts have questioned whether it is worth it to go to college. Others say we need to think much harder about how to make college cost-effective.

The Pew research was based on a telephone survey of about 2,100 adults, conducted in March.

Getty Images stock

Do you work with a bunch of jerks? Well, you might not be lying if you stand up and shout "this job is killing me!"

The risk of premature death is greatly reduced for people who report high levels of social support at their job, according to a new study published in the May issue of Health Psychology. Workers between the ages of 38 and 43 were mostly likely to be negatively affected.

Translation: If you want to live long and prosper, work at a company filled with people you actually like.

"Develop friendship ties with co-workers," if you want to counteract job strain, said professor Arie Shirom, who led the team of researchers at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel. "They will increase your social integration and allow you additional resources to buffer the effects of stresses in your life on your health."

And there's more bad news for women in managerial roles. The study found that having higher levels of control and decision-making authority increased the risk of early death for women. For men, having perceived control at work had an opposite effect.

Shirom said most of the study participants held blue collar jobs, in which men typically had high levels of control and women did not.

The researchers reached their findings after examining medical records of 820 adults, who were followed from 1988 to 2008, and questionnaires that measured job demands, control at work and peer and supervisor support.

TIP Strategies

Once upon a time - back around 2006 -  there were a decent number of jobs being created in the United States, especially in booming places such as Texas, Arizona, Florida and southern California.

And then millions of those jobs got cut. And this is what it looked like:

TIP Strategies

A compelling animated graphic from the economic development consulting firm TIP Strategies uses bubble graphics to show exactly how – and where -  the recession devastated the U.S. job market.

The animation, which runs from 2004 to January 2011, also offers a sobering illustration of how weak the current recovery has been, with only a handful of areas showing large bubbles of job gains.

Perhaps most worrisome are the little bubbles of red that appear in California and elsewhere, offering a stark reminder that some areas still are mired in job losses almost two years after the Great Recession officially ended.