It's Time to Take Your Money Back

I have been listening with interest to George W. Bush's ideas for saving Social Security -- if it needs saving. But one thing is clear -- Americans are squandering too much of their personal wealth by their day-to-day habits.

When I was a kid, we had savings plans in school. You took a quarter to school every week, got a stamp to put on a card, and when the card was full, you took it to the bank or post office and were given a U S Savings Bond. Maybe you were given an allowance on Friday night. You went to the bank and put fifty cents into a Christmas Club, and around the first of December, you got a check from the bank -- not a very large one -- to do your Christmas shopping, and maybe buy something for yourself.

Kids have not been trained to save money these last thirty or forty years. If they have an after-school job, they use their money to support their cars, or just have a good time. Not many squirrel away that money for college, so when they get out of college, their faced with huge debts. They start relying on credit cards to get them from paycheck to paycheck. And now those young people are being told that Social Security might not be around when they need it.

I say take steps to be more economically self-sufficient. Be frugal! Give up some of the self-indulgences you don't really need and keep the money -- put it in a piggy bank or in a financial institution. Take control of your money now so your lack of it doesn't control you later.