Savers managed to increase their savings levels by just 38 on average in 2009, according to ING, with many people instead focusing on paying down debt.
The savings provider claimed that the average person holds 2,205 in savings – the equivalent of 1.7 times their monthly take-home pay. Most financial experts agree that savers should have the equivalent of three months` salary put away to protect against debt and other financial emergencies.
ING said that savings levels actually rose by 112 during the final quarter of 2009, but this was more than offset by the 149 withdrawn from savings accounts in the second quarter.
A debt expert at Think Money said: “These figures really demonstrate the difficulty many people faced at the height of the economic crisis.
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More thoughts on health insurance and health care reform.
Health care costs are sky high in America, so it seems to me that having good health becomes a much more valuable matter here than anywhere else. This fact rings very true every time I come across a story about how someone goes bankrupt because of medical reasons. When you fall ill, not only do you lose your ability to earn a living (hence you need disability benefits of some sort), you also get squeezed dry by soaring medical costs.
Image from AmericanProgress.com
Besides all this, there is one other unfortunate statistic that needs to be reversed.
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Recently, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about some of the things I write about here on The Simple Dollar. Even though she’s struggling with some serious debt issues, she told me flatly that she didn’t want to take most of the advice given on The Simple Dollar. When I asked her why, she breathed in deep and told me the following (paraphrased):
I don’t want to be a “frugal” person. I don’t want to be the person who is no fun because I’m always chasing every dime and I’m always vetoing the fun things to do. I don’t want to be the person that leaves out cheap toilet paper for guests. I don’t want to just sit at home every night cackling as I count my pennies. I want to have a li
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Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) reported Thursday that its second-quarter profit jumped 60 percent from the year-earlier period, a sign that IT spending increases are leading the recovery of the broader economy.
Research firm Gartner estimates that global IT spending will total $3.4 trillion this year, 4.6 percent more than was spent in 2009. Forrester Research has an even more optimistic forecast: It says that global IT expenditures will jump 8.9 percent from last year’s figures.
Rapidly rising IT outlays boosted gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Read more…
I’ve been trying out another online budgeting tool that has some interesting features and most importantly to readers here, works for Canadian bank accounts!
The reason PocketSmith works with Canadian banks is because, like Wesabe and BudgetPulse, PocketSmith requires you to load your transaction data that you can download from your bank’s website. This can also provide a great increase in security since the site does not store all your bank passwords.
What sets PocketSmith apart from other applications is that it focuses more on forecasting your finances up to 12 months ahead and less on reporting what has already happened. Whi
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