many Americans are the worst with money...this is a crisis in the US

Hilary Clinton can't fix it --- People are not saving money and worse spending more than they earn.

- Americans are saving at the lowest rate since the Great Depression.
- Personal savings stood at a national level of negative $6.2 million in January.
- About 40% of Americans say they are saving nothing for retirement
- One in four Americans have no savings at all.

http://news.yahoo.com/page/parade-earn/your-money

 

No savings = no capital. This is a recipe for disaster.

 

That's why an economic downturn similiar to the 1981-1982 recession will be a disaster. Many people live paycheck to paycheck. And even when they lose their jobs, they continue to spend.

 

That’s very unfortunate, I’m glad I could properly budget.

 

the unfortunate thing is people are so dumb even after with the help of gov't, free education

 

People are so dumb because of gov't free education.

Anything worth having, is worth paying for.

 

no people are greedy and short sighted , they are also susceptible to marketing

it has nothing to do with public education, do you think schools should be in charge of teaching personal finance?

 

If they can teach sex education, then they might as well teach people how to manage their income.

 

Our education system is God-awful.

 

Personal finance and home economics are inmportant subjects. What is the purpose of public education?

 

I don't know about that, the purpose of sex ed is to improve public health by cutting down on venereal disease and unwanted pregnancies

I'm not sure what the standard is on manging income

I guess a personal finance class would help the people whose families are too messed up to teach them

off course if people were good with their finances, how could I make money off selling their credit card & loan applications? its actually in my interest that people keep going online and applying for more credit

 

Well, at least you're being honest about your motivations now.

I couldn't do that. Exploiting stupid people is the opposite of what I want to do. I want to educate as many as I can.

 

yeah well, if selling kittens paid good I would like to do that instead

you can try educate people but the greed and herd mentality is too strong, there are so many people who need to spend money on dumb shit to feel happy. They don't feel pride in savings or investments, they only want things that are visible to others, immediately.

People fill their houses with overprices knick knacks in a quest for fulfillment, they are crack heads for spending money. It doesn't even matter what they are buying they just need to be buying something. Deep down they think that owning lots of things is the key to being happy, and if they could just buy this one more gadget, one more pair of shoes, one more kitchen appliance they will find happiness.

 

We don't need to educate people as much as we need to change the system under which they live.

The current tax system punishes earning and it punishes investing. We need to switch to a tax system that punishes spending instead.

The trouble isn't that people are dumb, the problem is that people are smart -- they have figured out the optimal way to live under the current rules.

Hasn't anyone here ever raised a puppy?

 

1 in 125, or 7.5 million Americans are millionaires.

So not all Americans are struggling with handling their finances.

 

Ah yes. The old 8/10ths of a percent makes the rule. Very clever of you!

 

too bad a million dollars isn't even a lot of money anymore