Why Don’t Americans Save More Money?

[Powerful]

Why Don’t Americans Save More Money?

Nearly half of Americans would not be able to come up with $400 in savings in an emergency, according to a Federal Reserve study cited in The Atlantic's cover story this month. America’s poor and its middle class live on the razor’s edge of financial security through their working years and are uniquely ill-prepared for retirement. The United States finished 19th for three consecutive years in a global analysis of retirement security, behind Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and 13 European countries.

Medical bills can wipe out savings.

In addition, it's hard when you are in your 20s and 30s to say that your are going to put off having nice things or going on trips or having fun so that you can do that when you are in your 60s.

I think most of America says screw that.

 

[CaptainObvious]

It's a consumer driven society. Most Americans want to spend on the latest gadget, travel, buy a house and cars they can't afford. Most incur a massive amount of debt they can barely repay. Most don't think about retirement.

 

[Twitch]

I believe it's a combination of what CptObvious said and everyone here thinking they're a millionaire who hasn't made it yet. There are many people in the U.S. who aren't content with a "normal" lifestyle. They need to be rich and famous.

 

[Mirage]

Americans struggle with comparing themselves with others and thinking they deserve the same lifestyle. If you don't have the money, don't buy something. Not saying I've always lived by this, but it's pretty simple stuff.

 

[Hilander]

I agree with everything said and I would add a lot of people barely make enough to get by.

 

[Powerful]

We're also the first generation -- or start of the second depending on the timeframe you want to use -- that has had to worry so much about saving for ourselves without benefit of a pension. That was a huge part of the plan in a great many industries through the '80s or '90s or even '00s. From my 10 years in a union, I have a pension that theoretically will pay me a few hundred bucks a month when I retire. I don't expect to see more than 25 percent of it in the real world. But in decades past, any union member was looking at a pretty good retirement package without even planning for it.