May rate of personal savings at 6.4 percent. Pittiful

[RB TexLa]

Not even a tenth of income. Last month my rate of savings was well over 50 percent.
I really think we have alot of foolish people in this country.

[T Wolf]

1. How can you expect me to save when I have that new SUV and two big-screen TVs and all

them Palin memorabilia to pay for?

I could if the gubmint would steal my money and give it to the illegals.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I like the snark

and I save, compulsively so, but I should clarify the economy DEPENDS on people spending money, not squirreling it away.

[FooshIt]

3. Wow how very progressive of you

expecting me to save in the worst recession of my life, sorry I don't have any money left at the end of the month my bad. I'd pull myself up by the bootstraps but I had to sell them.

[RadiationTherapy]

4. I don't think you know very much about real people and real life.

I am more inclined to think you are fortunate with income rather than responsible or frugal.

[NoSheep]

18. really!

[NoSheep]

19. dupe-self delete

[renate]

5. I think a fairer statistic would be "savings as a percentage of disposable income"

Many people live hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck. I'm certainly not going to look down on anybody who chooses to buy groceries or pay the water bill instead of putting money into an IRA.

Sure, many people with plenty of disposable income are irresponsible with their savings rate, but not everybody is in a position to save 50% of their money; I'm happy for you that you are and I admire your financial acumen.

[Newest Reality]

6. Wow!

There are people who have money left over to save? They might be among those who have what is called income, I bet.

Must be nice.

[Statistical]

7. If everyone saved 50% of their income you would overnight turn a boom economy into deep recession.

6.4% is actually rather high for the US historically. Sad thing is this is the worst time (on macro economic level) for people to be saving.

People didn't save when it would have been good to save only to decide to begin to save in record numbers at the worst possible time.

[Silent3]

22. I'm saving a lot of money...

...because, even though my job is about as secure as jobs get anymore, I'm eager to build up my savings again after putting a fair portion of those savings into a new house a couple of years ago. I've got enough in the bank now to live comfortably without a paycheck for a year, but I want to get that up to at least two years, and have the money for buying my next new car in full set aside too.

Even once I've got that much set aside, I'll probably just throw more money into paying off my mortgage faster, and increase my 401(k) contribution the little bit that I can, which are currently at 10% with 5% matching (almost maxed out anyway). I'm hoping that in ten years my house can be totally paid off and I'll have freed myself from the last bit of debt that I carry. For many years now I've carried no month-to-month balances on my credit cards except the occasional 0% financing deal (and not even one of those in a while), and my current car was paid for in cash. I have about 50% equity in my house, but I still long for feeling free from all debt.

I want to be in a position where I can feel free to walk away from it all (my job, my house) if I decide I feel like doing something crazy, like trying to start a business of my own or write a book, and not have to worry too much about money for a while if I did.

The single scariest thing, contemplating leaving my job, is health insurance. Even when more of the HCR bill kicks in, it'll probably still be expensive to self-insure, though hopefully cheaper than it is now.

[Statistical]

24. You sound like me but even I don't save 50%.

I mean hell my taxes (state, local, property) end up being 30%+ of my income. To save 50% I would need to live on 20% of your gross pay. :rofl:

I try to save (or pay down debt) in the amount of 10%-15% of my gross (pre tax pay).

[Silent3]

31. Getting from 40% to 50% would be tough.

I'm doing a little creative accounting in that, when contribute 10% of my gross income to my 401(k), since my employer matches 5%, I consider that altogether saving 15% of my income.

In the past two years I've also been getting a payout from a retention bonus after another company bought out the company I work for. It's been pretty easy to save most of that money since it's a nice extra that I was in no way dependent on. I've only got one more year of that bonus, so my savings rate is likely to dip a bit when that bonus runs out.

[MadHound]

8. Well, considering that just a few short years ago we had a negative savings rate,

6.4 isn't bad. Also, consider that this is coming in the middle of a recession, with a huge unemployment rate, I think that 6.4 is a pretty decent number.

[marmar]

9. Umm, people are trying to survive.....Saving is not possible.

"I really think we have alot of foolish people in this country"

Clearly. :eyes:

[Renew Deal]

10. Isn't 6.4 really good?

It was less than zero during the meltdown.

[Statistical]

13. Yes. IIRC it is the highest rate in 40 years. n/t

[shraby]

11. The interest paid on saving is almost nothing..even for

CDs. There is no incentive to save..and if a person does get a few bucks from their savings over the course of a year, they have to pay income tax on it. ptooie!

[Hello_Kitty]

12. Thanks for the tip, Outsourcey McCheaplaborlover. eom

[Silent3]

14. Without a breakdown of who is saving what...

...at various income levels, that statistic doesn't tell me much.

I'm good at saving myself (especially if I count paying off my mortgage at an accelerated rate as a form of saving), but I'm fortunate in how much money I make. Last year I managed to save about 40% of my gross income. I know there are plenty of people out there, however, who live pay check to pay check, and it's NOT because they're blowing it all on frivolous luxuries.

People who are in my income bracket who can't manage to save, and it's because they're buying expensive cars and big houses, going on expensive vacations and buying lots of clothes and toys... those are people who deserve some criticism.

[Tailormyst]

15. Many people, including myself have no extra income to save

I think you must have never known what it is like to struggle to keep a roof, food and the power on for a family that depends on you. I'm going to chalk your comments up to innocent ignorance instead of willful arrogance.

[superduperfarleft]

16. If you wish to be a self-righteous nag, then I get to point out your spelling error.

It's only fair.

The word you are looking for is "pitiful." One "t."

[truebrit71]

17. What is this "personal savings" that you speak of? Is that like "extra" money?

After taxes, food, gas, shelter, lights, water, heat and a kid in college I don't have two nickels to rub together..

But bully for you...can you tell me which bills I should stop paying or which days of the week not to eat so that I can "save" like you do?? :sarcasm:

[w8liftinglady]

20. since I had a critical illness....mine is 0 %...

just remember that...why we need single-payer health care.

[sharp_stick]

21. How nice for you

I suppose a total lack of a life or anything would allow me to save a lot more but the fact is I'm happy if I save 6.4%.

I don't know how much of a lack of life I would need in order to bump savings up to 50% but I don't think it would be worth it.

[Pathwalker]

23. Maybe now you can afford to buy some compassion,

since you clearly don't have massive medical bills, deductibles, or co-pays that suck up extra income like a vacuum sucks dirt.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

25. Good for you, don't hurt your arm patting yourself on the back

'Cause you know, that costs money.

[hfojvt]

26. 6.4% seems pretty high to me

my own rate was probably -200% as campaigns are kind of expensive when you don't have corporations bankrolling you.

[Hello_Kitty]

27. Oh yeah, I forgot to unrec this. eom

[Cirque du So-What]

28. Oh, yes, DU needs much MORE sanctimonious drivel like this!

I'm OK - You're not OK
People in this position feel themselves superior in some way to others, who are seen as inferior and not OK. As a result, they may be contemptuous and quick to anger. Their talk about others will be smug and supercilious, contrasting their own relative perfection with the limitation of others.

This position is a trap into which many managers, parents and others in authority fall, assuming that their given position makes them better and, by implication, others are not OK.

These people may also have a strong 'Be Perfect' driver, and their personal strivings makes others seem less perfect.

http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/ok_not-ok.htm

Funny, I don't recall How to Win Friends and Influence People mentioning anything about patting yourself on the back, calling everyone else stoopid, and then leaving after dropping that particularly pungent turd into the punchbowl.

[ibegurpard]

29. How nice for you

[ThomWV]

30. I think that number is wrong by a wide margin, last I heard we had negative savings

and that was less than a year ago. In fact I don't think we've had a 6% rate since the 1940's.