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The top 3 pieces of financial advice — from the cost of a hybrid car to financial peer-pressure

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Financial peer pressure

If you worry that you're not saving enough, you might want to find out how much your neighbors are putting away, said Carolyn Geer in The Wall Street Journal. New research shows that informing people of their peers' financial behavior nudges them toward making better decisions with their own money — especially when "what they're doing doesn't meet the norm." More than half of respondents to a new survey said they would save more for retirement if they learned that their nest eggs didn't measure up to those of their co-workers and neighbors. But too strident an approach can backfire, said Stanford economist John Beshears. "We've tried, 'You are $5 million behind on your retirement savings! What is your problem?' What happens is people shut down and move on."

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