Percentage less that a 25-year-old single man pays for car insurance than a 20-year-old single man, according to a study for Bankrate.com: 49

Percentage less that a 25-year-old woman pays than a 20-year-old woman: 39

Source: Bankrate Inc.

Percentage of Americans who say it's not possible or are unsure if it's possible for someone to achieve financial security with a middle-class income, according to the Country Financial Security Index: 59

Percentage of Americans who say $50,000 to $100,000 is enough to live comfortably in the current economic environment: 48

Percentage of Americans who consider someone earning a $50,000 to $100,000 income as "financially well-off": 34

Source: Country Financial.

Percentage of baby boomers who postponed their plans to retire during the past year, according to the Insured Retirement Institute: 25

Percentage of boomers who plan to retire at age 70 or later: 28

Percentage who prematurely withdrew savings from a retirement plan during the past year: 10

Source: Insured Retirement Institute.

Percentage of consumers who indicated they would put money from a tax refund into savings or investments, according to the results of a survey by RetailMeNot: 42

Percentage of respondents who indicated they would spend their refund on food: 21

Percentage who would spend it on luxuries like travel: 19

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Percentage rise in the number of U.S. mothers with children under age 18 who do not work outside the home, up from 23 percent in 1999, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data: 29

Source: Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends.

Percentage of global adults who watch TV who indicate they usually watch TV programming "live," according to the findings of a poll conducted in 20 countries byby Ipsos OTX: 86

Ranks of streaming or downloading from a computer (27 percent), streaming from the Internet to TV (16 percent), using a DVR or other recording device attached to a TV (16 percent) and on a mobile device (11 percent) on the list of other popular modes of watching that are catching on: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Ipsos OTX MediaCT.

Rank of Italy on the list of places to go for the best local cuisine for its diversity from region to region, as well as its consistently high quality, according to a survey by the American Society of Travel Agents: 1

Rank of Paris on the list, cited for its excellent chefs, venues and the use of local produce: 2

Rank of New Orleans on the list, famous for melded flavors of Cajun, Creole and French that create wonderful and varied meals: 3

Source: American Society of Travel Agents.

Estimated number of occupied housing units across the United States heated by wood, representing 2.1 percent of all homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 2.4 million

Estimated number of occupied housing units across the country totally heated by solar energy: 42,747

Estimated number of occupied housing units across the country heated by utility gas -- 49.4 percent of all homes: 57 million

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of students who feel they don't know enough about personal finances, according to a recent survey by H&R Block's Dollars & Sense program: 75

Percentage of teens who worry about being worse off financially than their parents: 58

Source: H&R Block.

Percentage of IT companies that say security tops their clients' concerns, ahead of support for the cloud (52 percent), mobile-device management (46 percent) and data management (45 percent), according to the Autotask 2014 IT Service Provider Benchmarking Survey: 54

Source: Autotask Corp.

Idle Thought

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." -- Carl Sandburg, poet

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of Americans who agree that the SAT should be required for college admissions, according to YouGov Omnibus research: 37

Percentage who believe the SAT is a good indicator of future college performance: 36

Percentage who believe the SAT is a good indicator of how well an individual will do in life: 22

Source: YouGov.

Percentage of consumers who lack confidence in their knowledge or understanding of their personal finances, according to findings from a personal finance survey conducted for RetailMeNot: 49

Percentage of respondents who do not have enough money saved to last them more than a month if they were to lose all sources of income: 48

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Ranks of staying physically and mentally fit, spending time with family, eating healthy and maintaining an active social life on the list of the top priorities expressed by older consumers across 60 countries in a Nielsen global survey: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Nielsen Analytics.

Percentage of shoppers who said they often or sometimes feel guilty about purchases, according to a CreditDonkey.com survey: 54

Percentage who said they rarely feel that urge to return their purchases: 41

Percentage who never feel nagging guilt: 5

Source: CreditDonkey.com.

Percentage of U.S. consumers who use their mobile device to take photos, according McAfee's 2014 Love, Relationships & Technology survey: 98

Percentage who send or receive intimate content, including video, photos, emails and messages: 54

Percentage of respondents who are securing their smartphone with a password or passcode, a 30 percentage point increase from last year's result: 69

Source: McAfee Inc.

Years of Prohibition in America, considered a noble experiment that failed as the subsequent crime associated with bootlegging caused problems worse than the lone problem of drunkenness: 1920 to 1933

Year Congress amended the Volstead Act to permit beer of 3.2 percent alcohol to be brewed and sold: 1933

Today, estimated number of beer, wine and liquor stores in the U.S., with sales of over $36 billion: 31,000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of teens who believe in God, compared to 74 percent of adults, according to a Harris poll: 80

Percentage of teens who believe in miracles, compared to 72 percent of adults: 76

Percentage of teens who believe in the devil, compared to 58 percent of adults: 65

Source: Harris Interactive.

Percentage of chief financial officers who said the job interview is where candidates make the most mistakes, according to a survey by Accountemps: 43

Percentage of executives who felt applicants most frequently slip up when writing their resumes: 19

Ranks of interview follow-up (11 percent), cover letter (10 percent) and phone interview/screen on the list of areas where CFOs said job candidates make the most mistakes: 3, 4, 5

Source: Accountemps.

Overall sales in U.S. convenience stores in 2013, in-store sales climbing 2.4 percent to $204 billion combined with motor fuel sales of $491.5 billion, according to figures released by the National Association of Convenience Stores: $695.5 billion

Percentage of in-store sales accounted for by tobacco (cigarettes and other tobacco products): 37

Percentage accounted for by food service (prepared and commissary food, and hot, cold and dispensed beverages): 18

Source: National Association of Convenience Stores.

Percentage of nonprofits that reported an increase in demand for services, the sixth straight year of increased demand, according the results of the Nonprofit Finance Fund's 2014 State of the Nonprofit sector survey: 80

Percentage who were unable to meet demand in 2013 -- the highest reported in the survey's history: 56

Percentage who expect 2014 to be easier than 2013 for the people they serve: 11

Source: Nonprofit Finance Fund.

Idle Thought

"Several excuses are always less convincing than one." -- Aldous Huxley

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Average percentage more for car insurance that drivers pay as a result of committing a minor speeding violation (1 to 15 miles per hour over the legal limit), according to an insuranceQuotes.com report: 21

Average percentage more for car insurance that drivers pay as a result of following too closely: 19

Average percentage increase in car insurance rates upon DUI convictions: 93

Source: insuranceQuotes.com.

In 2013, average wedding cost, excluding honeymoon, according to the results of TheKnot.com's annual Real Weddings Study: $29,858

Average spent on a wedding in Manhattan, N.Y. -- the most expensive place to get married: $86,916

Average spent in Idaho -- the least expensive place to get married: $16,159

Source: XO Group Inc.

Rank of "a particular preference for print over electronic" on the list of the most popular reasons students cited for purchasing print instead of digital-based course materials, according to a Student Watch survey conducted by OnCampus Research: 1

Source: National Association of College Stores.

Percentage of organizations that believe managing critical talent is essential to success, according to Mercer survey: 64

Percentage of organizations that say they have programs that are "extremely effective" in achieving that goal: 30

Percentage of organizations that employ processes to identify critical talent with approximately 2 to 5 percent of the workforce categorized as critical: 75

Source: Mercer.

Percentage of consumers who are comfortable with a 10 plus years or "until it dies" vehicle life span, according to an AutoMD.com's survey: 78

Percentage of car owners who said they now have 150,000 or more miles on their current vehicle: 33

Percentage who said they planned to purchase a new vehicle: 10

Source: AutoMD.com.

Ranks of Jack Nicholson ($390 million), Tom Hanks ($350 million), Robert De Niro ($310 million), Barbra Streisand ($310 million) and Sean Connery ($250 million) on the list of the top five wealthiest Oscar winners, according to Wealth-X: 1, 2, 3 (tie), 5

Rank of Sandra Bullock ($150 million) -- the only Academy Award winner on the list with a 2014 nomination: 10

Source: Wealth-X.

Percentage of Americans who will hit the road or sky for a long-distance trip this spring, according to a study from Wahl Therapeutic Massagers and conducted by Opinion Research Corp.: 35

Percentage of adults 18 years of age and older who experience physical pain while traveling: 92

Across all four modes of transport -- airplane, train, bus and personal vehicle -- ranks of back, leg, neck and arm/shoulder pain on the list of the types of pain travelers experience most often: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Opinion Research Corp.

Percentage of American consumers who plan to file tax returns using online services this year, according to a survey by RetailMeNot: 31

Percentage who prefer to prepare their taxes themselves: 18

Percentage of people who wait until April 1 or later to file their taxes: 15

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Rank of Derek Jeter, entering his final baseball season with the New York Yankees, on the list of the most popular players in the game, according to a survey by the Saint Leo University Polling Institute: 1

Percentage of all people who say they are very (20 percent) or somewhat (27 percent) interested in following Major League Baseball: 47

Source: Saint Leo University Polling Institute.

Year that the first theological school to admit female students for divinity degrees was formed, when the Boston Theological Seminary merged with Boston University, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1871

Year the first female bachelor of divinity graduated: 1876

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Idle Thought

"There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go -- if there are no doors or windows -- he walks through a wall." -- Bernard Malamud, novelist

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)