Susan Hayes-Cullerton

Hello and welcome to Taking Stock.

I'm Susan Hayes-Cullerton and this is the show that looks at business and economics from a wider perspective.

Coming up on today's show, fail again, fail better and fail faster.

We look at the economics of failure and ask, have we completely misunderstood the importance of not getting it right when we talk to an economist, an author and a businessman who knows why mistakes matter so much?

plus the science and health and economic benefits and pitfalls of using wearable technologies for our supposed well-being, you can email the show takingstock at newstalk.com or you can message me on socials at Susan Hayes Culleton.

Now, I want to start off by explaining to you some terminology that came up in a piece this week in the Irish Times about how a household could be earning two good salaries and still feel broke.

Now, it's a really well-written piece by Joanne Hunt and I recommend that you check it out.

She mentioned, though, that the median,

disposable income for a household in Ireland is €5,000 and €140 per month.

So I want to break down those two words median and disposable.

First off, median is the middle number, as distinct to the average.

And the average can be really affected by extremes, so the median one gives you more clarity.

And then, what is disposable income?

Well, that is the income after tax, social insurance or PRSI, pension contributions and inter-household transfer.

So that would include anything like an inheritance or maybe child support between families and so on like that.

And the reason that I'm bringing this up to you is we can make the mistake of looking at average wages and then making assumptions about what that means for lifestyle.

But the way in which Joanne looks at it is actually a better way because it gives you a clearer picture.

Now, wearable technology has evolved rapidly from simple step counters and fitness trackers into sophisticated health monitoring tools capable of tracking everything from sleep to heart rate variability to blood oxygen levels.

But now companies including Aura Health, Fitbit and Whoop are increasingly positioning wearables not simply as wellness products, but as tools that could potentially forecast risks.

And that could range from hypertension and heart disease to hormonal changes and even cognitive decline.