Save..Save…Save… For a Rainy Day

Too often, savings is a dirty word in the American Lexicon.  It denotes “giving up” what I can get now for “whatever may come” later.  Though savings activity was reported to rise in 2010/2011 as Americans shed credit card debit and thought more about “cash as king”,  the savings rate never broke 5%.   Thus, it more than doubled from pre-recession savings that rangedd  from 1-2% at best.

IF, we as a nation, had saved 8 to 10% of net incomes in the late 90’s/early 2000’s hey days, the 2008 collapse would never had occurred. 

 A BOLD STATEMENT??? 

Not really, for if someone taking home $2500 per month had saved 10%($250) each month for the late 90s/early 2000s, the savings of $30,000 would have stood he/she well during the economic downturn.  Assuming the job was maintained, there would be another $10,000 by now in savings.

In addition, most likely, this individual would have had excessive charge card balances or a house payment greater than affordable to stay or sellable if needing to move.  This would be true for a simple reason:  by saving for the ‘rainy day”, this individual would have more limited funds for said payments thus would have put off extravagent expenditures.

I am sure as this post  is read…I will have numerous agree as they were the savers and other that may strongly disagree that saving during the good times becomse one’s safetu met in the bad times