omg the economy!

[keryx]

The other day at work there was talk about personal savings in a big department meeting. It's also been a topic of reporting on NPR lately - that Everyone Is Now Saving. Is everyone now saving? Will everyone now be saving because the media said we were?

I'm fascinated by this idea. Is it true? Will it change the world?
[Poll #1364249]

If you read this via Facebook, you won't see the poll. You have to go back to the original LJ post.

Comments

[divinerose.livejournal.com]

I am making more, and saving more. But that is really because I'm saving for a house, whereas last year I was not. So my increase in savings is somewhat due to the economy, as the only way I can afford a house around here is in a depressed market.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

I delayed my Paris trip for six months to accommodate my friends' finances - but we're still going.

[cyprinella]

I am thisclose to getting my car paid off (\o/) and I'm planning on spliting what was my monthly car payment between saving up a proper emergency fund and paying off my student loan. We're definitely not planning any new extravagent house remodeling for the future, just in case. My office says that it's not laying anyone off, but then they did (It was probably more of a firing than a layoff though). I'm trying to make my plant purchases edible plants. Just little things where I can because my budget is pretty frippery free as it is.

[luguvalium.livejournal.com]

They let cute lesbians on cable news?

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

Rachel Maddow--and she's adorable.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's exactly who I was thinking about. :)

[goodgothgirl.livejournal.com]

Oooh! What channel?

[keryx.livejournal.com]

My income effectively flatlined for the first in several years (after steadily increasing). Most of last year's savings went into the house, so my only major planned purchases this year are house-related & the annual HI trip in order to rebuild that fund - but I'm still saving at a fairly slow rate.

Reporting on the OMG Economy is currently influencing my decisions about garden stuff and what/how I invest in that work.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Since it's not possible to save any money when one no longer has any income, the media is having zero influence on my savings habits.

Last year I was making almost $50,000 a year and saving plenty. This year, nothing.

[drownophelia.livejournal.com]

i'm currently engaged in a hyper-local economic stimulus of tipping well the many cute waitstaff & bartenders i interact with multiple times a week. my personal savings are down, but i assume that the cash i give to them will in turn be spent on other local necessities.

again, with the hyper-local, i frequent music gigs of my friends & roommates, knowing a portion of my door charge will go back into their pockets, and in some cases, back to me in the form of utility checks.

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

That's the way to go! Also, money spent on personal services goes farther than money buying things.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I love these ideas. I'm trying to apply the spend-local thing with the house stuff.

[steamedwords.livejournal.com]

I am unemployed and living off savings :-/.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

ditto.

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

Yep! In my case savings = hopeful house buying fund, so I'm pretty pissed about it too.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. That should have been an answer option in the poll, as I know a few others in the same situation.

[quietdeath.livejournal.com]

I am trying to enter a job market which should be begging for me. Instead I am planning out of state interviews in case I can not get a job here.

Also... my garden is going to be much bigger than I originally planned because of the cost of food skyrocketing and the projected summer prices.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I want you to get a job here!

I still think this garden co-op idea is a brilliant one if there are enough of us growing things this summer. Anything I plant that lives - whether I end up with the genius garden people or getting thrifty and doing it on my own - will end up more than feeding me.

Except the baby tomatoes. Those are all mine. My dad and I used to be able to eat 8-10 plants worth of cherry tomatoes just standing in the garden.

[quietdeath.livejournal.com]

I am sure that most of the tomatoes I get will go to trade, or canned sauces/soups. I just am not a raw tomato eater. Who else is going to grow this year? I have butter lettus, black seed lettus, spinich, carrots, roma tomatoes, and winter peas started. Later I will start my zuchini, garbonzo beans, green kentukey beans, summer squash, and pie pumpkins. I also have a bunch of herbs started and I will dry most of those. All my stuff will be organic.

[mermeydele.livejournal.com]

i'm saving more, but that's something i've always wanted to do and never managed to b/c of the whole poor grad student thing (which continues, worse than ever actually). actually, i started saving about a year ago, when i opened an ing direct acct. online and started putting any gift money i got into it. now i try to save some of my income there too, but thats also b/c i have no guaranteed money after my may paycheck and the summer is coming so soon. yikes!

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

We've always lived on less than we make and have always saved a bit. I'm saving just a teensy bit more this year, as a hedge against the ups and downs of freelancing.

We've successfully paid off car loans and student aid loans years early because of this frugality. In a few months, we'll pay off our last car loan about 18 months early and will only have the mortgage as a debt.

[bookgrrrl.livejournal.com]

saving more at the moment, but not for long, once daycare hits.

[titilayo.livejournal.com]

I quit my job last year to start studying for a PhD, so I am earning nothing and therefore saving nothing. Before that I was saving pretty damn hard (to pay for my studies, and because I'm tight-fisted by nature), so even if I were still working, I don't think that it would have been possible for me to be saving more than I was last year or the year before.

(I'm not in the US though, if that makes a difference to the results.)

[goodgothgirl.livejournal.com]

I love this poll! I heard the NPR story just this morning about the impact of people saving more. I hadn't thought about it until today.

I make about the same amount of money I did last year, and I save the same -- that is, $0. I haven't had a 401(k) in 3 years, and I have an IRA that's the rollover from when I had one. Jess and I have a small savings account that's left from money my dad gave me from my mom's life insurance, but I bet half of it will go for the wedding. I saved my tax return, but it's budgeted for wedding spending.

The story today actually made me nervous about needing more savings. Of course, I've known for years that I'm well short of the 3 months' expenses that everyone should have in savings, but I never worried about it much until now. I'm not sure if it's the economy so much as a realization of my mortality and my age catching up with me. Or a combo of all three.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I do have a 401(k) at least, but other than that am largely a short-term saver.

All of these stories made me nervous about savings in much the same way that starting to think about houses did. Back then it was "I don't have $50K in the bank, so I'll never be able to own a place" and now it's "OMG I need $250K in singles hidden in St Kitt's! And a boat! In case the banks all collapsing also collapses the airlines! ACK!"

At the same time, if everyone panics and starts squirreling everything, then the whole St Kitt's scenario might be true. So, maybe instead I'll spend with the local fence dude. Go out to local restaurants. And just be a leetle bit less spendy.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

Saving more because I plan to go to school full time in the next few years. Now, much of that savings needs to offset some debt so I'm not paying loan payments while I'm in school.

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I am having a full-on panic about what it means to go back to school full time, and whether I should put it off and save up a little more first.

[deadpoet83.livejournal.com]

I'm finally making enough, and have gotten certain expenses down (damn car insurance is expensive when you are younger than 25 and rent is cheaper in crappier areas) to have money to save.

[firecat]

My savings rate has not changed but if the economy hadn't tanked I might have decided to buy a new house or start a major remodel which would have put me in debt up to my eyeballs. It wasn't so much the news media, though, as my account statements and the rapidly changing real estate prices.