Stupidity is no barrier to wealth: That's the conclusion of a study by Jay Zagorsky, a research scientist at Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research. Based on a study of 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Mr. Zagorsky found no correlation between IQ and wealth: "Those with low intelligence should not believe they are handicapped, and those with high intelligence should not believe they have an advantage."

But here's what really interesting: Smart people do earn more money. They just aren't particularly likely to save and invest it, which is a recipe for creating wealth. According to the data, each extra IQ-point coincided with an extra $202 to $616 of income a year

So smart people earn more money but apparently fritter it away (Mensa memberships perhaps?). So does that mean that saving money is stupid? Or, are smart people just not very smart when it comes to money?

This comes as no surprise: A national survey found that individuals don't actually have to be smart to be rich. In fact, people with below-average IQ test scores can be just as wealthy as brainiacs. According to the study, it's more about attitude than smarts.

The study's author Jay Zagorsky, an economist at Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research, says that it's up to each person to have a positive attitude and want to save up money and build up his or her wealth, and each and every one of us can do it regardless of our IQ.

Indeed, intelligence positively affects income as people with higher IQ tend to have higher education leading to higher paying careers. Basically, individuals with higher IQ scores earned higher incomes with each additional IQ point associated with an income boost of $202 to $616 each year.

But, the higher income didn't make them more wealthy as IQ score had no impact on wealth. In fact, highly intelligent people actually have financial difficulties, maxing out credit cards and missing bill payments, making them less wealthy. The lowest financial distress was found around the average IQ score.

This is a brief follow-up to an article I wrote on the importance of including dividends in your investing perspective. I called the post, "Dividends are very sexy -- no joke." The article received a large readership.

I did an experiment to find out what, if any, impact the title might have had on the hit rate. A few days after the original post was published I sent out three separate blog entries with either Sex, Jokes, or dividends highlighted in the headline. It should not surprise anyone that the hit rate favored 1) sex, then 2) jokes, and then 3) dividends. 

So, while my experiment was highly unscientific, my conclusion is that adding sex to an article does pay a dividend.

Furthermore I'm glad my readers have a sense of humor. If you want to read a great joke with some VALUE and have not yet read the joke blog, go to: Assessing your investing IQ: More on Jokes - Blogging Stocks

And if you have not read my post on dividends go read it! : my original post

Good luck with all your investments! Your comments are always welcome.