Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Between 1958-2015, the savings rate peaked in 1975 at 17% and it's been on a downward trend ever since.
The lowest rate was 1.90 in 2005.
Thus far, this year, we have been in the 5.5 range.
So any of our bills are discretionary spending, cell phone plans, cable TV, coffee drinks, dining out, more clothing and shoes and on and on. Then there's Lotto and tats.
People used to replace the collar and cuffs on their dress shirts to add years of wear. Nowadays, people are more enclined to toss something if a button is missing.
People used to have a single shared party line for the household. Now, young kids have smart phones.
I don't even have to address this because so many posters have addressed you before.
And I remember.
Things aren't better. And your not experiencing what the youth are.
P.S. I've already supported the seniors. Wish you a happy retirement.
It's not always just people who 'can't take care of their money'.
For example, one time I had a late payment while I was working. I was making good money for the work, and get large lump payments but my payment was late. Well I can't generate money on a whim, and I was young and didn't have a savings, so my account began to overdraft. When I got my paycheck finally I lost hundreds of dollars to overdraft fees. The opportunity cost sent me into months of catching up and a credit score knock.
I was working. Had a job. But there were things out of my control.
I just think its wrong to charge that much for each fee, and the compounded fees, etc. Not every bank deals with overdrafts the same in my experience. Some are much more forgiving and will actually work with you.
Why would you write a check when you did not have a balance to support it?
Al kept working as a tax accountant into his late 70s. But Alzheimer's disease forced him into retirement.
The couple is getting by on about $2,500 a month in Social Security and Veterans Administration benefits, plus food stamps and help from their two sons. They stopped paying the mortgage and are fighting foreclosure in court.
I can easily believe that poll to be accurate. If I think about my younger years transitioning from college to the working world, that would have been a tremendous amount of money. It can be tough starting out. I worked all through college and had some savings, but not too much. When I got my first "real" job, buying some appropriate clothes wiped it out. Showing my age, but then business casual was not the norm. Shirts, ties, shoes and suits are expensive. I considered it an investment in my career, but it wiped out my meager savings. (The burn was 2 months later the company went business casual. Sigh.) I lived in a dive apartment in a dodgey part of town with 2 other guys. There were student loans to repay as well. Add some commuting costs I hadn't experienced before and very quickly there's little money left at the end of the month. And I had what many would consider a "good" job with great benefits. About 9 months into my career, wham, root canal. I of course had chosen the cheaper dental plan because I was 24 and those kinds of things only affect old people, right? It was a sobering dose of reality to understand what a root canal and crown costs and what insurance doesn't cover. It wiped out every penny I had and then some. Luckily the kind dentist took pity and accepted a payment plan for the balance I couldn't pay. So there I was paying student loans and a dentist every month wondering what I could get for my cheap suits. It took a few years to work my way up, increase my earnings and pay off my depts until I would have been able to answer yes to that survey.
Now, I was a guy who grew up in a middle class family, top 10% of my class, went to a reputable university, got out in 4 years and drove an old used hand me down car. By most measures, I probably had a pretty good headstart. But it wasn't easy. In some ways, I am lucky a root canal was the worst I experienced during that time. I had friends experience much greater hardships that wrecked them financially.
If I think of some of the guys at the bottling plant where I worked part time in college, I can't imagine them being able to say they could come up with $400 easily. This was a physically demanding job and these guys worked incredibly hard, putting in as many hours as they could to earn overtime. I was much younger than they were, but we all made the same $10/hr, no benefits. It's a nice narrative to say that anyone willing to work hard in this country can succeed, but I don't know how much harder these guys could have worked. Some of them were supporting families. I remember one day, the box making machine's hot glue dispenser clogged. As the mechanic is trying to fix it, he removes the safety guards. When he removes the blockage, a stream of hot glue shoots into my coworker's face and eyes. He left in an ambulance. The next morning, he was back at work. Incredibly his eyes weren't damaged, but he had some nasty burns across his face. I suppose he could have tried the lawsuit route, but he had a baby to feed and formula is damn expensive. He couldn't afford to take a single day off of work. I've never forgotten that guy. He was bright and hard working but had very few options. He certainly didn't have a spare $400 and likely no credit card.
Contrast him to a friend of mine who spends money like water. He has an excellent career, making six figures. But he cannot save money. He pays off his credit card bills with his yearly bonus and will say, "Now I have $5000 to spend because I paid off that Citibank card." Or recently, "Hey such and such bank offered me a credit card, so I have $2500 to spend. I think I am going to get a new TV." I've given up trying to offer any advice to him. But I know for a fact, he would not be able to scrape up $400 without avoiding some bill or another.
So yea, 43% of folks falling into that category seems completely legit to me.
Exactly! But when I read the posts from some of the brilliant people on CD who shoveled snow when they were 3 and opened their first store when they were 10, never got a traffic ticket, paid their bills early and had a million in the bank by the time they were 25, I pause for a minute and remember that this is the internet and they can be whoever they want, a rock star one day and a billionaire the next
Why would you swipe when your balance does of support your purchase?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
