In October of 2006, I wrote a simple post at the Online Savings Blog called “Rule #2: Spend Less Than You Earn“.
Now, this is one of the most fundamental basics of personal finance: don’t spend it if you don’t have it.
In that post, I linked to a chart of the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ Personal Savings Rate of Americans. And it wasn’t pretty.
I had always read that, in our age of credit cards galore, saving was down. But I never realized how bad it was, until I saw the Personal Savings Rate for the average American.
It’s less than zero.
So what does that mean?
People are spending beyond their means. They’re buying things with money they don’t have, going deeper into debt and making saving impossible.
Fast forward a few years, and our debt has consumed us. You don’t need a history lesson — this is reality.
But now that more people are focusing on proper money management and not living beyond their means, the savings rate has changed dramatically for the better.
Take a look at the chart now.
From the third quarter of 2005, when the savings rate was negative, to the first quarter of 2008, when it went over 1 percent, to Q1 of 2009, when it actually went over 4 percent.
And that, my friends, is the best news coming out of the recession. The key, however, is to continue to keep the savings rate this high, even when the economy turns around.
