16 Surprising Facts About Money

If you need some interesting facts for your family’s next trivia get together, or some random small talk for the next awkward social gathering, here are 16 random, interesting, and slightly mind-blowing facts about money. Seriously y’all, some of these are weird.

It costs 2.4 cents to produce a penny.

Of all the currency in the world, 92% of money exists only digitally.

A $1 bill has an average lifespan of 6 years before it is removed from circulation by the Federal Reserve. And it is usually folded upwards of 8,000 times before it rips.

Once upon a time there was a $100,000 dollar bill: printed only from 1934-1935 and used mainly for transactions between banks.

US paper money is actually not paper at all, it’s a cotton and linen blend.

Parker Brothers has printed more money for its monopoly games than the US Reserve has issued in real money.

A 2009 study found that 90% of all paper money contains trace amounts of cocaine.

Statistically speaking, someone who drives 10 miles to purchase a lottery ticket is 3 times more likely to die in a car accident driving to get the ticket than they are in winning the lottery.

In 2018 the TSA collected a little over $960,000 in loose change at airport security.

The US government initially established the secret service to prevent the spread of counterfeit money during the Civil War, although now their job requirements have expanded.

34.5% of the average American’s take home pay is spent on interest.

There are more than 1.4 billion open credit cards in the US alone.

Car loans have reached and all-time high average of $30K with the average student loan debt not far behind at $29K.

51% of Americans have less than one month’s income set aside for an emergency.

42% of people in the US aren’t saving for retirement. And of the 58% that are, only 1 in 10 are saving 15% or more of their income for retirement.

Anyone with no personal debt and $10 in their pocket is wealthier than 25% of the US population.

While I hope you found many of these facts entertaining and surprising, I also hope you can see the burden that some of these statistics bear. I hope you can see the importance of staying out of debt, bulking up your savings, and ultimately being able to live a life of financial freedom.

If you’re ready to start paying off debt or you want further guidance in your pay off journey, get my completely FREE downloadable Debt Free Guide. This is a full guide of reading and prompts that gives you the steps to paying off debt in a bite sized format so that you can stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling motivated!