Just interested in knowing how often you guys discuss this with friends and family?
It seems to be an increasingly interesting subject as one grows older, esp among men(just my observation), and even more so in certain age groups, middle aged men in particular seem to end up discussing this all the time. Sit back at a dinner party when you got all your uncle's, or parents friends around you and listen, it never fails.
House loans, interest rates, investments etc all this becomes more important as one gets older imo simply because one got more capital, might be paying off on the loans for the villa/summer house etc.
Anyways I rarely discuss private economy with my parents, economy in a larger context, all the time, my father is a professor in economics at the Uni here(PhD at the Department of Economics and Business, spec co-operate entrepenourship) so that comes naturally but I got no exact knowledge what he brings home for example, or any exact idea of his investments and my mother's income fluctuates wildly so the same thing there, impossible to keep track of her economy, generally just get numbers when she's sold a lot. One year she will bring in a lot, the next year she will be more "heads down" and less sales orientated so sales will be slower.
Friends, totally depends on who I'm hanging out with, some of them could care less, some of them are well versed and have a very active interest in economics.