In an article about the negative savings rate (sorry, I can’t find the link) the author explained that the savings rate is misleading since it does not include investment in assets, which blows my mind, if true. He said that investing in stocks or RE, including buying or improving your own home, even 401K’s are NOT considered savings… By that measure, I save very little.
Now that I have a reasonable stash of emergency cash, all my money goes to investments in retirement accounts and brokerage accounts (mostly equities), mortgage payments, and the rest consumer spending. With the exception of some short term cash I save for vacations, I don’t “save” much, but I am stashing away ~20% of my income–and have 6-9 months of salary in cash.
I found it strange that, according to that article, I would not be considered a “saver” since I am not adding cash to my accounts every month!
Go figure.
If the article is correct, I would think that there would be very few savers. Either you spend your paycheck every week, or you are investing. I would think only a rare few keep stuffing money into cash accounts, once they have a cushion or a plan to invest it in the near future.
-one muggle