With Downturn, Have People Stopped Saving?
The economic downturn has done more than just pinch the wallets of Americans and caused them to stop spending so much discretionary income (since they barely have any nowadays thanks to astronomical gas prices, energy prices, food prices and other factors that are exponentially increasing just to live life normally), but they also have stopped saving as much for their future.
That’s right, the money that many Americans had earmarked for their retirement or even savings plans that were not meant for retirement has dropped significantly, with many people citing increased cost of living as a reason they do not have as much to put away, or some do not have anything to put away now. It’s gotten so bad that in fact I was just reading about how the financial services sector is one of the worst areas to get a job now because there is so little opportunity.
Financial planning companies are struggling to talk their customers into keeping up with saving for retirement and investing their money instead of spending it on things that go away in a little while. Hopefully you have found it somewhere in your discipline to make cutbacks elsewhere instead of cutting out your retirement or investment savings plans, because we are all still going to need that financial security when we retire into our golden years.
My dad’s good friend is still in the stock brokerage industry, and he says he’s never had clients so worried about their money, trying to call and pull it out all the time. He said he spends more time trying to talk people out of making that mistake, only to have them come back again and again every time the stock market takes a hit, or to have him downgrade their investments because of financial hardship so they can use that money for living expenses.
It’s probably one of the worst times to be in the financial services industry with all the economic factors currently at work, and I truly feel bad for those that have to deal with it and also with the fact that losing money for people is simply a fact of life in a down market, and there’s nothing anyone can do besides wait it out and stick with their solid investments over the long haul.
