Surprising financial statistics

This week's blog post has a financial theme to it, but rather than just list random financial facts and statistics, I've instead made it into a two part quiz...

Money, pictured yesterday.

1) Interested in interest

If you put 10 pence in a bank account and got 5% interest every year on the balance in your account, how much would you have after 500 years?

A) £2.55
B) £5.10
C) £84.62
D) £3,932,326,182.72

. . . . . . . .

Answer: In actual fact you would have almost 4 billion pounds!!!  To be precise, you would have £3,932,326,182.72!!!*

* Although of course that's before tax.

When I first discovered this my immediate thought was, "No way!  That can't be true!" but you can check the calculation here:
Compound interest calculator

However, the calculation assumes that your bank doesn't round the interest down to the nearest penny. If they did, then 5% interest on 10 pence would be 1/2 pence, which if rounded down would be zero! So if your bank rounded your interest down then instead of having nearly four billion pounds, you'd instead still have only ten pence! Curse those sneaky down-rounding banks!

2) Rich and poor

Money.
Not shared equally among the people of the world.

Part two of the quiz takes a look at the difference between the richest and the poorest people in the world.

There are approximately 7.2 billion people in the world, so if all the money in the world was shared equally, the richest 3.6 billion people would own the same as the poorest 3.6 billion people.

However, the world's finances aren't shared equally, obviously. Can you guess how many of the top ranked richest people in the world have a combined wealth greater than the combined wealth of the poorest 3.6 billion people in the world?

A) 62 richest people
B) 2,500 richest people
C) 10,000 richest people
D) One million richest people

. . . . . . . .

Answer: 62 people.

Incredibly, the richest 62 people in the world own more than the poorest half of the world's population! That's a pretty mind-blowing statistic! 62 people own more than 3.6 billion people!

Fortunately, those 62 richest people include really nice people like Mark Zuckerberg, Carlos Slim, and George Soros, who always use their riches for good. #irony Imagine if the 62 richest people in the world didn't include really nice people like Mark Zuckerberg, Carlos Slim, and George Soros. The world would be in a right mess! #irony But luckily, the 62 richest people in the world include really nice people like Mark Zuckerberg, Carlos Slim, and George Soros, and they always use their riches for good. #irony

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Sticking (loosely) with a financial theme, the catchily titled 'The Cashier Who Didn't Work Saturdays' is a short story about a cashier who doesn't work Saturdays. It also features a bank robbery. Anyone who wants to avoid spoilers should look away now... (Spoiler alert: The bank robber is stupid.)

Here's a very short blurb for 'The Cashier Who Didn't Work Saturdays':

"Sidney Berkinshaw attempts a bank robbery which doesn't go exactly to plan..."

'The Cashier Who Didn't Work Saturdays' is the winner of the award for 'Most Exciting Book Title'. #NotReally