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DIGITS: Keep a budget? Count yourself among the 32 percent who track their spending
• It was an oft-invoked image on last year's campaign trail: The typical American couple, sitting around the kitchen table making a budget to ensure their bills were paid and spending hadn't gotten out of control. Candidates of both parties decried the federal government for failing to complete this most basic of financial tasks, citing a growing national debt and wide deficit as evidence of fiscal irresponsibility.
• Turns out, most Americans don't do it either.
• A poll from Gallup shows that 32 percent of Americans put together a budget each month to track income and expenditures, and just 30 percent have a long-term financial plan laying out savings and investment goals.
• Those with higher incomes or college degrees were a bit more likely to say they regularly put together a budget, though less than half in those groups said they keep close tabs on their financial life. Only about a quarter with a high school diploma or less say they do.
• And, as rare as they suggest budgeting may be, the results of the poll could even look a little better than reality. People want to be seen as good citizens, so when they're asked by a pollster whether they do things that are generally seen as positive, good-person activities, they fudge a little. Pollsters call this "social desirability bias," and a great example of it is voting. Without fail, more people tell pollsters that they turn out to vote than actually do.
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Report: Ariz. wildfire that killed 19 firefighters was quick, erratic; resources were limited
• PHOENIX (AP) -- A new report shows an Arizona wildfire that began with a lightning strike and caused little immediate concern because of its remote location and small size quickly grew into an inferno, leading officials to rapidly order more resources in the hours before the flames killed 19 members of an elite Hotshot crew.
• The report from the Arizona State Forestry Division provides precise detail about (Continued on page 29)
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