Are you dis-saving?

[ryanus]

Dis-saving is using your savings for living expenses. Also known as having a negative savings rate.

I think that health of the economy is worse than it appears, but it doesn't seem quite as bad because people are managing to use their savings to make ends meet. I think that people are using their savings for living expenses, which can give a false appearance that the standard of living is higher than it really is. One people run out of savings, then they can't keep their same standard, which could cause a ripple effect of lower consumption which leads to smaller business profits which leads to layoffs which leads to lower consumption, etc.

[Coyote_Bandit]

1. Single and long-term unemployed

with a collection of literally well over a thousand rejection letters. The savings I had is dwindling. Look for me under a bridge near you - but hopefully not anytime soon.

[SoCalDem]

2. don't forget the house/atm..

I personally know people who took equity loand and did re-fis to buy a car or pay credit cards or take vacations...

One friend had almost $40K of credit card debt, did a re-fi on his house..and of course racked up more credit card debt..

:dunce:

[patricia92243]

3. People can only tighten their belts so far. For several years now, people

have shopped second-hand store etc. AS time goes by, there are less and less decent consignment sales, because the people that at one time had decent clothing to consign are less affluent themselves.

I totally agree with your assessment. People have been living off their savings - and what is worse - off their credit cards - for several years now. And, of course it all has to end sometime. Like the housing bubble - you can't buy a house if you don't have a job.

I read another post that said economist said we are in for a long,deep recession. I'm not sure when a recession is declared a depression. I'm old and scared.

[snappyturtle]

9. First off......

:hug: In a couple of days I'll be fifty nine years old. I don't consider myself old, yet!,however,I don't see the dreams of my youth on the horizon anymore. They were good dreams....not extravagant, normal dreams: college educations for my two children, a decent income,an annual vacation, a home etc. Stability. Now I fear just about every piece of mail that arrives hoping that if there are bills we can meet them. My husband has worked hard his entire life and was very successful (home builder) until he lost over a million dollars in the late eighties to Silverado crap.....but he pulled himself up and went on. I've got a college degree. Taught school, quit (after eight years)when I decided to have children. Since, I've worn many caps.....taught at YMCA's, worked for an optometrist,was a nurse's aide in a nursing home and started a 30 yr. business in sculpting....did production art for years and survived. Had my own studio and gift shop. So, I have always worked. But now, I guess I'm just tired of it all....not that I'll just stop working but what for?

I see the wealthy getting wealthier. I see jobs lost to outsourcing and immigrants. I see homes being built from empty cargo containers. I see prices rising.

I fear for my children. One finished college although, her jobs are barely enough to keep her afloat. She's a hard worker clocking 60 hours plus a week...and then there's my poor son. He's finished a couple years of college but it's all been so piecemeal that it's really of no use. He won't get see his dream either. He wanted to be an environmental attorney. He has had so many jobs over the years....he's thirty now. Sunday he leaves for Mexico to an area just north of the Belize border and south of Cancun, with a buddy and a real estate investor.
These boys have been befriended by a man (the real estate investor) who sees potential for them as managers of an 18 billion dollar vacation resort. They would be on a team of managers. Pay sounds too good to be true. Their trip will be three days in length to check things out. Funny? These boys (men) are bright and experienced so maybe things will work out for them.....the funny part is that they're going to MEXICO for jobs....to service international ultra-rich vacationers. How times have changed.

Meanwhile my husband and I are packing up to go back to Kerrville,TX, my husband's home where he ran his building business for almost three decades and raised his two children. He has an excellent reputation there and we foresee a little light at the end of the tunnel. Funny....we sold our building and living quarters, five years old, way under the professional appraisal,to the Family Center people here in town who run the food shelf and thrift shop. They service the economically unfortunate. Funny.....we build the business here to service the construction businesses and leaving so now the building will serve the poor. Things are not good. I don't care what economic bright lights this administration is trying to turn on....I know better. The average family in this country, no matter how high they hold their heads, if honest, know that there are some grizzly economic times ahead. How do we prepare when most of us have so little to prepare with? Sorry, for the rant. I fine solace in knowing we're not alone.

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. Before your son accepts that job in Mexico

I would advise doing a background check on the fellow (and his business) that intends to hire him. I personally know someone who got badly taken in a similiar endeavor. Turns out everyone involved in the financing, management and hiring had a less than stellar background. One fellow had been convicted in an investment fraud case. Another had a long history of litigation and unpaid obligations. Same group of folks had also bilked some missionaries into taking on debt afor te sole purppose of investing in their little adventure. Not saying your sons' benefactor is like these guys. Just advising caution.

[snappyturtle]

28. Oh, yes. We have.............

many questions to be answered. We'll know more when they return from this three day trip. The "boys" wouldn't start work until January. I KNOW there are many unscrupulous types out there and we're proceeding very slowly on this.

[DemonFighterLives]

4. Work slowed and the wife is not able to work

Savings is taking a big hit. Gas has consumed 300-400$ a month.
:argh:

[RB TexLa]

5. Stoped spending after 9/11 haven't gone back yet

[ThomWV]

6. Retired and avoiding dipping in as much as possible

I haven't dipped into our savings in a year and a half, but the last time I dipped I took about 20 grand and its almost gone. Fortunately our interest in the last year and a half has brought us back to where we were before the withdrawal.

[City Lights]

7. We've been living off our home equity loan for the last few months.

:-(

Thankfully, my husband started working again yesterday. Unfortunately, it will take us a long time to get to a point where we can start saving again.

[Historic NY]

8. Retired, single, injured................

Workmans Comp Insurance has yet to pay even when the judge ordered then to do so. Pension board still hasn't ruled so I am collecting ordinary pension and SS hearing seemed positive. These people move slower than snail in a hurricane. I was glad I put something away for a rainy day. My lawyer says this stuff goes on all the time and some people wait up to five years. I love to save but now spending is the only option. This has been going on for over a year and a half.

[EC]

10. Actually, I'm liquidating anything of worth

and saving it...

[FILAM23]

11. It's not much

but I'm able to add to my savings a little each payday.
However my savings took a fairly large hit this summer,
(major purchase not day to day living expenses) and it will
take awhile to replace it.

[Jed Dilligan]

12. Just brought "No Savings" into a tie for 1st

I try to keep a grand on hand for a quick trip out of the country... but I dip into that every few months, so it never grows.

[MercutioATC]

13. Staying even, but not for "living expenses"...

I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy ;)

[leftofthedial]

14. tough call. I'm using savings to live on

(if you can call it living)

which are now virtually exhausted

[earth mom]

15. No savings. Been living paycheck to paycheck for years...

even with hubbys better paying job, we are paying off old debts and trying to get a new furnace and maybe (though probably not) a new roof before winter sets in. Never a spare dime...

[Nicole]

17. I am adding to my savings

However I'm living very frugally to do so.

[Deja Q]

18. Don't worry, Europe and Asia will take up our slack.

More people over there.

They have more products and gadgets Americans typically don't buy (e.g. a "second" cell phone... there was a MSNBC article and a magazine article that said of these things...)

[KoKo]

19. GOOD POST! what ARE we DU'ers DOING?

We've been through over 6 years of this shit...how are we coping?

[berni_mccoy]

20. I've always been tight with money

Been saving consistently for over 10 years. I just don't buy stuff. I've been doing my own budgeting, accounting and taxes and never spent more than I earned.

[Sapere aude]

21. The place I am working at is not doing well, so to my wife's employer

If we were to both be laid off at the same time, all we have would vanish. I would have to sell our house and hope to get enough cash to pay off the other debts. We'd be homeless and unemployed. Pay check to pay check is how we live. No savings. I hope to work to pay off most of our debts before anything like that happens so if we make less money at least we can have a roof over out heads.

[HardRocker05]

22. Saving now, but i hate my job and will probably have to take a lower payin

paying one to save my sanity. It's like you can have security or happiness, bot not both.

[nick303]

23. Currently saving about 30K/year

Eating peanut butter and jelly often builds character

[Greylyn58]

24. No savings

I'm hardly making ends me. Have been looking for a better job....so far no luck.

Economy sucks!!!

[high density]

25. I'm saving

I'd like to open an IRA at Fidelity or something like that, but I have to wonder if it's worth it in this shitty stock market.

HSBC is paying 5.05% APR on online savings accounts and that's where most of my cash is at the moment. I'm not terribly pleased at having money in a bank named the "Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation," but they've been really good with interest rates over the last year so I figure they're not much nastier than any other huge bank.

[The Jacobin]

26. Saving

Working, saving, paying a 15 year mortgage, terrified that the home value will crash (though not caught in a bubble), spooked that shrub will devalue the dollar by borrowing so much.

[Earth_First]

27. We are saving considerably...

However, we've made some substantial sacrifices in life in order to do so. I am sure there are plenty of individuals for one reason or another cannot due to circumstance beyond their control, however there is a decent percentage of the population that are living WELL beyond their means.

We're hoping within the next two years to have 25-30% down on a mortgage, a method of home ownership that has become UNHEARD of.

I wish to everyone the very best.

[Liberal In Texas]

29. Savings somewhat stagnant, but we are paying down old cc debt.

We're about to pay off 2 cards and last one is down 1/3 over a year ago. After that, we may start to start adding to savings again. The last card is 0%, so we're not in a big hurry, but that rate won't last forever.

My biggest fear: Right now we are fairly healthy, and have inurance, but if one of us gets some long term illness, we'll no doubt lose the savings we have and go into debt big time. Even with insurance.