I’ve been watching the U.S. consumer savings rate climb. It’s been heartening to witness the ascent past 5% on its way to perhaps 7%. Any way you look at it, this is a welcome—if not critical—change in our financial/economic behavior.
I started digging into how this rate is computed and asked a few of our resident economists for some explanation. As a result, I don’t feel quite as good about the savings rate as I did, but I understand the basis for it much better.
Are Americans becoming more thrifty? Personal savings rates are up, the government statistics tell us. This fact has engendered a wide-ranging debate. Is this just a short-term deviation from America’s obsession with spending, or is it a permanent change?
I believe it’s a permanent change, but not for the reasons you might think.
One of our readers recently asked about Vanguard’s view on 401(k) loans.
As you might know if you’ve poked around Vanguard.com, we generally frown upon retirement plan loans, to put it mildly. In fact, Vanguard’s intranet for employees recently featured an article cautioning us against borrowing from our own retirement accounts.
Thank you for all of your comments on my “Generation D” blog post. We heard from students, recent grads, parents, and investors. Your comments were insightful and passionate, and pointed to several major themes.
Some of you admitted to, or alluded to, confusion over the terms of student loans and the implications of those terms. “Read the fine print” was the phrase that struck me. (I was looking at a promissory note from Sallie Mae this week, and it’s not an easy document to get through.)
Graduation season is upon us. Many of us have children, grandchildren, or acquaintances sailing out of school … and hitting pretty rough seas in the job market.
I had planned to speak to my sons about investing once they graduate. But while investing is undeniably important, I think a better discussion would be around debt management.
