[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by tripods68

Majority of Americans DO NOT save enough towards funding their retirements or kids college fund, life insurance, let alone enough EF. In fact the US has a negative saving rate of 4 percent. You already mentioned why Americans are broke and will be more in the future because of spending problem of instant gratification in this country.

I'm not sure what your comment adds to the discussion at hand. I'm not talking about folks who are living beyond their means or people who are living paycheck to paycheck. And I'm not talking about instant gratification.

I'm talking about the folks like my wife and myself who live below our means, save for retirement, save for kids' college, have an emergency fund and other investments but sometimes feel guilty about going out and spending money on something we really want because we feel that money could go to increase our savings even more. My point is just that if you are on track for the major goals, it is okay to enjoy yourself some now. Every penny beyond basic needs doesn't have to be sent to Vanguard and Fidelity and T. Rowe. It's okay for some of those pennies to go to Best Buy and Marriott and Disney.

As for that negative national savings rate, keep in mind that retirement savings is not included in that figure. So if you are putting 15% of income into your 401k, you would be recorded as having a savings rate of 0%.