C
Cut-Throat
Guest
The snippet on the evening news claimed that around 50% of Americans are just making payments and not saving anything. About 12% were not earning enough to pay the bills and had to borrow more to make it.
Arif said:By travelling back and forth between Panama and the US I really notice the drive to consume and keep up with the Jones' mentality.
IHateCNBC said:8:30 AM ET 8/1/06 U.S. JUNE PERSONAL SAVINGS RATE -1.5%
IHateCNBC said:8/1/06 U.S. CORE INFLATION RATE MATCHES AN 11-YEAR HIGH
IHateCNBC said:WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumer spending was weak for a fourth straight month in June as rising gasoline prices left Americans with little to spend on other items. A key measure of inflation rose at the fastest pace in more than a decade.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060801/economy.html?.v=4
REWahoo! said:Now I understand why you chose the name "IHateCNBC". No one likes their competitor!
PS: You can make those headlines crawl, you know....
Andre1969 said:Is this another one of those instances where if you're putting money into a 401k or investing in stocks or mutual funds, or paying down your mortgage ahead of time, or perhaps even putting it into CD's, that they don't count it as savings?
I've heard that when you take those other forms of "savings" into account, the picture isn't nearly so bleak. Sure, there are still plenty of people in dire straights, but I still don't think overall things are as bad as some of these scare-tactic articles would lead us to believe.
Andre1969 said:Is this another one of those instances where if you're putting money into a 401k or investing in stocks or mutual funds, or paying down your mortgage ahead of time, or perhaps even putting it into CD's, that they don't count it as savings?
I've heard that when you take those other forms of "savings" into account, the picture isn't nearly so bleak. Sure, there are still plenty of people in dire straights, but I still don't think overall things are as bad as some of these scare-tactic articles would lead us to believe.
ESRBob said:Yeah, I thought we'd pretty much beat up this statistic earlier this year, that it wasn't crdible because all it counted as savings was checking accounts and bank savings account or somesuch limited notions. Some posters at the time rose in defense of this accounting method, saying, in effect, 'if the price can fluctuate, it ain't savings-- savings is cash, period."
If that is in fact how the govt reports savings, I think we can ignore this whole topic. Anybody know for sure? And has anyone seen stats on modified savings rates that would report new money coming into all the various places people actually store it? I did a little digging into the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances earlier this year and found that, over the previous 3 years (2002, 2003, 2004) financial net worth was up pretty nicely for a large swath of the population.
I own 880 acres by La Chorrerra.
ESRBob said:The other is to actually go count the amount of money in savings and checking accounts as a percentage of national income or disposable income or somesuch macroeconomic number.
IHateCNBC said:me view (back of house) and me casa