How many savers in the house?

[RobertK]

A couple of different studies found that most American's are saving between 0.8% & -0.2% of their money and 80% are living paycheck to paycheck using credit cards to carry them through financial hardships or emergencies.

I've always been a Dave Ramsey fan so this is very alarming to me. So it made me curious to find out how many r3v'rs out their actually make it habit to save money for any reason.

[Ray Smoodiver]

Is an S50 swap and LM's a savings plan?

Seriously, I do, but Law school and my appt are making it less than i'd like.


Also, completely ignore my post, as i'm not American.

[cheades]

I usually save quite a bit, but most of my hobbies besides the e30 don't cost much money.

[Ryan Stewart]

My net worth is higher than my credit limit and I could buy a new car on my credit card.

Investments and 401k FTMFW.

[Court M3]

My net worth is higher than my credit limit and I could buy a new car on my credit card.

Investments and 401k FTMFW.

Been saving since I got out of high school. Long term goal is once I retire from military no more work.

[KenC]

FTMWF hahaha

[Charlie]

Don't put nearly enough into savings as I should, but I'm certainly not hurting. I usually make it a point to dump 15-20% of a check into my ING or other savings account, and the rest goes into checking. Don't really carry any real balances on my CC's anymore. Haven't had a car payment in years, college loans are taken care of. It's just rent & utilities now. No IRA, but that's mostly because I've been working shitty contract jobs for far too long. Car shit is my only real "hobby", and I make a point to not pay too much attention to what I spend there, I'd probably cry. I may end up buying some beater van this summer, but that's going to be about my biggest "irresponsible" purchase. Well, kind of. Once I have the van, that gives me cart blanche to get a trailer. Which gives me leeway to make the car into a bigger track rat, which eventually leads to W2W. You can see this slippery slope, and why people know I've been talking about this for a year and haven't pulled the trigger.

I'm looking to make the plunge back into the NoVA area in the next year or two, so I'm looking at property out in West VA, that's my next real "debt" opportunity. Buying a home kind of scares me, but I have to. Apartment living is shit.

-Charlie

[DanGillan]

i just realized it was time to start saving money for my future (im only 19, im not too late, although an earlier start would have been nice) so literally 3 weeks ago i opened a third account at bank of america to start saving. the account is not accessible from ATMs, only online. i've been depositing about $50 week, and i signed up for keep the change (they round all your debit card purchases up to the nearest dollar and deposit the difference into a savings account of your choice) not a big big help, but some is better than none. i've made it a point not to touch the money... ever. and i also made a biggy bank of sorts where i save extra bills from my wallet, say i have a lot of cash for some reason, i'll toss a $20 into the cash bank and never touch it.... i made it a point not to touch that, but that's also my emergency funds if necessary. im working full time this summer and plan to build my savings as much as i can. i think everyone needs to start saving, no matter how old they are, and make it a point to never touch the money, not till you need to buy a house or get into a buisness or something really important. i just wish i had realized this a couple years ago.

[dirty30]

I save....and then I am beaten and robbed every month by some gang called "e30".....I cry myself to sleep every night

[rwh11385]

Americans listen to hood rich or MTV mentality too much, and it hurts. There is way too much materialism in the nation. Fucking LV purses are waste of money IMO, and growing in popularity.

Obviously I'm in college, so savings isn't exactly common, but I will look to hopefully dump some more $$ into my Roth IRA this summer instead of into this money pit.

When I'm out, going to try to live conservatively, save up in various means, and then try to invest in a home, then mutual funds/bonds... as well as contribute as much as I can into my retirement savings. When your employee matchs you, you can fucking have a buttload of money for retirement early.

I don't plan to be a fucker on dubs and with TVs, living paycheck to paycheck. Screw that lifestyle and superficial concern. It's wrecking America.

[RobertK]

Cool to know there are savers around.. Right now I keep 3 types of savings accounts. I keep $1000 in a MM account for emergencies only, I have $2100 saved up for the wedding in a long term savings account, and a short term savings account where I keep about $300 for misc. like tags, speeding tickets, gifts, and other misc. things I don't have budgeted but come unexpectedly.

I've made it a point to try to one day have a FICO score of 0. I got rid of all the credit cards, got rid of a car payment, and I'm getting ready to pay off my student loans once they come off of deferment. Once I pay everything off the only thing I plan to ever borrow money for will be a house and that's it.

[rwh11385]

what? 0? I don't even know if that is possible, but that'd be horrible credit rating. You want a FICO score of around 800 ideally.

http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/

HOW are you going to borrow money if you don't have any credit? You should just keep the credit cards around and use them wisely to build credit - like when you know you have the money already to pay for what you are purchasing.

[mspiegle]

I was doing REALLY good for a few months... had a nice pile of cash saved up... then I bought something on an impulse, then it started a chain reaction...

In the last 2 weeks, i've bought:

Lincoln Electric MIG welder
auto-darkening welding helmet
protective leather jacket for welding
craftsman professional 60gallon 3.2HP 240v compressor
full TC Kline coilover setup with D/A shocks, camber plates, etc
Hawk HP-Plus pads

If you add in the rent check I wrote last night ($680), that's well over $4K =(

EDIT: I totally forgot that I defer 5% of each paycheck into a 401K, and another $500/month gets split up between a Roth IRA and mutual fund I recently started. So.... I guess regardless of how much I spend, I am actually saving.

[DarkWing6]

As a working college student living on my own it is tough to save, but I usually get at least 10-15% of my check into savings. Unfortuantely I occasionally run into car probs or other areas where I need to dip into my small amount of savings, so the account never really ammounts to much. I figure that is what it is for though. In a couple years when I graduate I will get a real job and then I can save for bigger things like a house. I am just happy to know that I have 0 debt.

[RobertK]

what? 0? I don't even know if that is possible, but that'd be horrible credit rating. You want a FICO score of around 800 ideally.

http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/

HOW are you going to borrow money if you don't have any credit? You should just keep the credit cards around and use them wisely to build credit - like when you know you have the money already to pay for what you are purchasing.

The FICO score is a joke. The link is a website that tells you how important your FICO score is and is maintained by a financial institution. That like saying "the salesman at the car dealership says it best to buy a new car every year."

Somewhere along the way banks have convinced people that a credit score is a good measure of wealth when in reality it's the exact oppostie.

TO have a credit score means you must maintain a balance of borrowed money at all times. The highests scores go to those who are always in debt. The main reason America's savings is so low is because a majority of American's have payments on a life style they could not afford to begin with.

Why else do you need a credit score? To borrow more money? The FICO score is a rating system made up & used by banks to determine how good of a consumer you are when borrowing money. I would rather lend my money to the bank and have them give ME interest. Plus I don't ask the bank for financial advice. That's like letting the fox into the hen house.

You can get a traditional mortgage at prime rate without any credit score. It's called 10% down and have the bank underwrite the mortgage. If the bank only uses the FICO score to determine whether or not you can borrow then go somewhere else because they are morons.

Also, as far as buying stuff on a credit card and paying it back, I read an article in Forbes shows that the average person spends 18-20% when using a credit card as opposed to writing a check or using cash. Why do you think fast food places started accepting credit cards now? Fast food restaraunts found that consumers spend 36% more when using a credit card in their stores.