It’s a good bet that as you start the work week that you are looking back at what you spent this weekend and are thinking to yourself that you spent more than you had planned on doing.
You’re not alone, and it’s a trend that’s been going on for a long time now.
For the 28th month in a row, as a country, our savings outpaced what we bring in. The savings rate is down to 2.8, which is the lowest since last December and just shy of record lows. So what is going on? Why are we spending like drunken sailors?
“People are earning more money than they did years ago, and so people have had a suppressed desire to spend. That’s definitely a part of it,” explained economist Hank Lewis with Lone Star College,
Lewis says another contributing factor is that with the Great Recession almost ten years behind us, our memories of it have as well. But the bottom line is we don’t save the way our parents did, and we certainly don't save the way their parents did.
“Baby Boomers grew up in an era when they were taught to live for today because you are not guaranteed tomorrow. So they spend,” Lewis said.
And according to a 2017 GOBankingRates survey, more than half of Americans (57 percent) have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts.