Monday, August 6, 2007

Saving Enough?


It's a Sunday evening, the first day of my vacation and I sit here in front of the computer working on some of my posts for the next week. this a great opportunity to catch up on some things that I have wanted to write about, but just didn't have time to do. One such thing is discussing an article that I read in a local magazine called TK Magazine. TK stands for Topeka, Kansas. The article in the current July/August 2007 issue was about saving.

Entitled "Are Topekans Saving Enough," and written by Katelyn Hasler, was an interesting read. Certainly, a topic, that I as a personal finance blogger, and the only one in Topeka, am interested in. Not only that, but a topic, related not just to Topekans but all Americans, that has been in the news since I started writing this blog.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis has reported that savings of disposable income has dropped below zero, while household debt has risen, during the same years.

There are those of course who argue that the alleged savings crisis that these statistics might suggest is simply a mathmetical error or an exaggeration.

However Hasler, writes that

Officials at local banks, however, said that based on what they have seen the trend toward saving less and spending more is startlingly real.


I am not surprised. That is one of the reasons, that I started this blog and started trying to get out of debt. I don't want to have the negative savings rate in my life any more. I want to stop making the banker rich. Instead, I want to be able to retire someday, and not be one of these seniors working at Wal-Mart or McDonald's in my "golden years."

Dave Ramsey has been discussing this issue for years. It goes hand in hand with the "me" attitude. The attitude that says, "I want it and I want it now." A desire by young people, fresh out of school to "have it all." A desire to have everything their parents have, not taking into account that it took their parents 20-years to accumulate all that stuff.

This attitude is the attitude that we all, not just those of us under 40, need to change. We need to take a look at our great-grandparents and have the attitude of not buying anything unless we have cash in hand. This in past generations included saving up for that house.

Even the Bible warned against debt, when it said in Proverbs 22:7:

The borrower is slave to the lender.


Of course, even Benjamin Franklin has been quoted on debt:

The borrower is slave to the lender and the debtor to the creditor.

and Shakespeare in Hamlet (1603):

Neither a borrower nor lender be.


So with all the advice against debt, from the very people we all trust; God, Shakespeare and Ben Franklin, why is it that we enslave ourselves. Do we really think we will beat the odds and not be snared in the bankers trap? Wake up, let's all bankrupt the banks and make ourselves rich instead of the banker.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for your excellent post about the savings crisis and our cover story on how this crisis is playing out in Topeka. I think irresponsibility with finances is a symptom of our "now, now, now" society, which really hurts us "later, later, later."

    Our government has much the same attitude. "Have taxes, will spend" without a lot of thought to what happens when the debtors decide to cash in the notes we owe them.

    I believe so much in the problems caused by over-spending and under-saving that I made it our cover story!

    God bless,

    Kevin Doel
    Publisher
    TK Magazine

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  2. Great blog. I think it's so sad that people have to have what they want NOW, but few people have a concept of self-control. But the flip side is that it is so expensive to simply live these days, that people have nothing to put away. I think people need to be taught practical tips to saving and living within their means.

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