'Why don't Americans save more money?'

Interesting Atlantic story, and good discussion here. I agree with others who say they'd rather take moderate-costing trips with their families now, rather than some worldwide cruise when they're 70.

We're not rich, but I'm certainly not complaining. As Americans, really, we're all very fortunate compared to working people across the globe. (I often mention this when Mrs. Coco complains about our financial situation. Occasionally that works ... )

Working "second shift" nearly nonstop since my son was born in 1999 allowed us to never spend on child care (my wife is a teacher). We've also very fortunate to pay off the credit card bill each month and keep cars until they don't run anymore.

That said ... we certainly don't have tons of readily-accessible cash sitting in a savings account. Most of our savings are in kids' college funds.

 

This has been one of the more interesting revelations, to me, on this thread and in reading articles like this in recent weeks. It seems like everyone recently finally showed their poker hands and ... no one had any (liquid) savings.

 

Wanting to "keep up" with other parents i/r/t experiences and things for kids, which tend not to be cheap. Parents feel pressure to not see their kids fall behind.

Who in the family feels the pressure to keep up?

Why do they feel it?

When they're told no, do they have any self-discipline to do anything about it?

Is the "keeping the kids up" really just one long con?

 

Yep. I've saved aggressively for retirement, in fact probably too aggressively, my entire career. I'll be fine when I can retire, but until then I'll always be a little cash poor.

I don't think that's the case for most people, though. I think I've read that the country faces a retirement crisis because people generally haven't saved nearly enough.

 

I have close to $400k in liquid savings. Its going to pay for retiring early (before I would have to pay a 10% penalty on 401k and IRA). And our house is paid for. And I have one kid graduating college this week, with no debt. Another is two years away. We helped pay for my oldest's wedding last year.

I also drive an 8 year old car. So does my wife. It'd be neat to have a touch screen on my car. Maybe next car. And my wife and I have taken maybe 5 vacations out of California in 20 years of marriage.

I won close to 17 grand on a game show a decade ago. It all went in the savings account. People's propensity for savings varies.

To each his own.

 

There's no doubt companies/unions used to help more with retirement, too. Even newspapers used to have a 401K match, up to, say 2 or 3 percent. That's long gone now.

 

My wife's car is a 2003 and mine is an '07. Our combined car payment is $288 right now and we owe around $4,000. That said, the '03 is getting to be a clunker, and she has long wanted it replaced. The day of reckoning is coming.

How old are you?

 

We just had a financial crisis, recession and slow recovery. All of those ate up the savings of millions of people and they had nothing to do with it. Remember, most folks' primary asset is their home. That's a form of saving wiped out for many.

 

51.
My wife works part time. She doesn't make more than 15k a year. We got 12 grand from her dad when he died. It all went to savings. The rest has been us. I defer 10% of my salary to my 401k.

That 400k is practically all savings. Our after tax brokerage account's performance has been marginal at best.

We buy used cars and pay cash. We've never had a dollar of credit card interest (I think one month a decade ago when a payment got lost).

 

Homes are only an asset if you have equity. You think people getting 80/20 or variable-interest mortgages have/had any equity?

 

I think we need a whole thread on this aside, please.

 

That shit is all in your mind. It really is.

It's remarkable how you can take two people in relatively similar situations, and one will be happy as hell ("I'm healthy and have everything I really need, yada yada yada") while the other (Hi, Dick and Dick's wife!) will be fretting that "The Smiths have a bigger house/The Joneses have a bigger boat/The Johnsons just went to Hawaii" and are never satisfied.

Some people consider it a failure not to have every new thing or see every new show.

I consider myself a failure if I carry any debt and don't have half a million set aside for retirement.