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MONEY MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE SURVEY: WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR MONEY?

3 out of 4 People Consider Themselves "Very Ethical" When it Comes to Money; Only 15% Feel Others are Equally Ethical

6% of People are Willing to Sleep with Their Boss or Someone Else Who Can Help Them Get a Job

New York, NY (March 17, 2007) — Would you sleep with your boss to get ahead? Cheat on your taxes? Keep a $2,000 bank error in your favor? MONEY magazine released today the results of an exclusive nationwide survey, providing an unprecedented look into the way Americans think and feel about the various money issues they face daily. The full story will appear in the June issue of MONEY, on newsstands, May 21 and is available online now at www.CNNMoney.com.

The results illustrate a widely differing sense of right and wrong and show willingness by many to cut ethical corners when given the chance. At the same time though, respondents tended to hold themselves to higher ethical standards than they held others, often putting generosity ahead of economic self-interest.

"Not surprisingly, people's sense of right and wrong when it comes to money, depends in part where they're coming from — their age, sex, income and life experiences all play a large part in how they deal with these situations," said MONEY assistant managing editor, Diane Harris.

The most striking differences were between men and women. Both men and women believe women are more ethical than men (although women are likelier than men to think that's true) and it appears they may be right. Women are more likely than men to express concern about ethical issues (to say, for instance, they don't invest in companies that make products they disapprove of) and to play by the rules (fewer women sneak into second movies at the multiplex or steal office supplies). They're also more likely than men to favor splitting their estates equally among the kids and to disapprove of attaching conditions to gifts of money.

Some highlights from the survey results include:

• When asked what they'd be willing to do to advance in their career, 6% of survey respondents said they'd be willing to sleep with their boss or someone else who can help them get ahead. Of this 6%, respondents tended to be young, single and 10 times more likely to be men than women.
• 68% of respondents reported having a problem with family and friends over borrowing or lending money. While 1 in 6 respondents said they had never repaid in full the largest amount of money they'd ever borrowed from a friend or relative.
• 82% of respondents said never let your relatives know how much money you have. 57% of respondents admitted to having problems with family or friends over having a lot less money then they do. 55% of respondents admitted to having problems with family or friends over having a lot more money then they do.
• 88% of respondents said you should never let your co-workers know how much you make.
• 1 in 5 said they would keep the money if their bank put $2,000 into their account by mistake.
• 1 in 6 also said they've returned an item to a store for a refund once they were done using it.
• Nearly 3 in 10 felt it would not or probably would not be wrong to force their elderly mother to move to an assisted-living facility, even if years earlier they had accepted a large financial gift from her and promised to help keep her there for the rest of her life.

"Worse yet, these numbers are probably low, since there's a tendency for people being surveyed to be less than candid when an honest answer would reflect badly on them," continued Harris. "However rather than respond with cynicism to these findings, just be realistic and maintain a healthy respect for people's ability to rationalize doing the wrong thing if it puts more money in their pocket."

To find out how ethical you are when it comes to money, take the money and morals survey online at www.CNNMoney.com/moneyethics. Additional exclusive online content includes a "Do the Right Thing" blog where MONEY's ethicists sort our readers' financial dilemmas and video of senior writer George Mannes hitting the streets of New York to see how people responded to MONEY's questions.

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METHODOLOGY

The nationwide survey of 1,000 adults (500 men and 500 women) was conducted online from February 28 to March 5 by The Research Spectrum (San Francisco, CA) for MONEY magazine. The margin of error for the 1,000 respondents surveyed is approximately 3.1 percentage points; the error for split sample comparisons — the questions 500 people answered — is approximately 4.4 percentage points.

ABOUT MONEY

MONEY magazine is the nation's largest magazine of personal finance. With nearly 2 million subscribers and newsstand buyers and 7.4 million total readers, it remains twice as large as its nearest competitors. MONEY's accessible and user-friendly articles are aimed at anyone who is responsible for making money decisions in his or her household — from seasoned investors to those who are just starting their financial lives. The magazine's mission is to help readers make better decisions, not just in their investment portfolio, but in all areas in which life and money intersect — family, home, health, finances, career, spending and future. MONEY, along with FORTUNE, Business 2.0, FSB: FORTUNE Small Business, and the website CNNMoney.com, is part of The Time Inc. Business and Finance Network. Time Inc. is a division of Time Warner, a leading media and entertainment company.

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For further information please contact:

Phil DiIanni
MONEY
212-522-6282
phil_diianni@timeinc.com

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