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There’s been a lot of talk lately about the personal savings rate in this country, with President Bush barnstorming the country, trying to sell folks on his “Ownership Society,” dropping his g’s and drawling his y’all’s in that folksy, I-may-have-gone-to-Yale-but-you-can’t-take-the-Texan-out-of-me style of his. Up as high as 10 percent 10 years ago, the savings rate dropped below one percent last year, according to a bipartisan committee in Congress. Whether diverting part of our Social Security money into personal retirement accounts invested in the stock market will fix Social Security is debatable, but there’s no denying that Americans—particularly women—must increase the amount of money they stash away for emergencies, for retirement—and to pay for the necessities and luxuries that we are now, foolishly, dangerously charging on our credit cards. We shouldn’t be waiting for a nudge from Uncle Sam. When asked why they don’t save more, many women tell us that they don’t think they have enough to save and that the little that they do have won’t make a difference. “Starting is better than not starting,” advises best-selling author David Bach (“Smart Women Finish Rich,” “Start Late, Finish Rich”) in his advice to savings slackers in this issue, which we’ve devoted to various ways to pinch a pretty penny. “If you save—automatically—one hour of your income a day, you’re going to build financial security,” Bach says in his article, “What’s Your Double Latte Factor?” In other words, saving can be your saving grace.
“Save me. Put me away. Hold me close, and never let me go.” That’s what our “Funny Business” columnist Jane Resnick’s money whispers when it talks to her. ”That voice is my mother’s, a woman who knew how to stash cash and where to put it—in a drawer beneath her bras . . . ,” she recalls in her touching celebration of the way an entire generation of women set aside a little cushion for themselves.
These days there are far better places for a woman to stash her cash, as our “Female Finance” columnist, financial planner Elizabeth Lewin, points out in “No 401(k)? No Problem! A Retirement Plan for the Rest of Us.” Eve Kaplan, another financial planner, gives the phrase “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” new meaning—and readers another place to invest their money—in her “$aving & $pending” piece on exchange traded funds.
Of course, one of the best places to plunk your dough is in real estate. Single women aren’t waiting for marriage before they take out a mortgage anymore, points out Rosemary Rys in “Home Alone—and Loving It!” In fact, single women buying real estate is the hot new housing trend: research shows that they’re purchasing homes in record numbers.
To find the money in your budget to save for a house, try the savings strategies offered in our other stories: in “Clothes Encounters of a Revealing Kind,” a Banana Republic sales associate offers smart tips for saving money on your new spring wardrobe; and in “Nursery Rhymes & Reason,” a mother of two adorable boys shares ways she found to reduce costs when the stork came. You’ll find effective ways to hunt for price breaks on your spring break in “Surfing for Travel Savings” and suggestions for looking blushingly beautiful on your wedding day, even on a tight budget, in “Bridal Grooming.”
The most effective strategy for finding more to save, of course, is to earn more. In “Does Carly’s Comeuppance Signal Progress for Women,” marketing expert Tracey G. Riese analyzes what former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina’s ouster means for women climbing the corporate ladder.
Finally, we’re happy to announce a new addition to our Web site: a useful tool to help you save even more money on your purchase of everything from apparel to appliances, digital cameras to drugs and beauty supplies. Look for the Pricescan.com banners when you visit www.makingbreadmagazine.com. “Don’t buy it before you Pricescan it” is this leading price-comparison site’s motto. Make it yours, too.
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Gail Harlow is the Founding Editor of MAKING BREAD. Send your comments, questions and suggestions to gail@makingbreadmagazine.com. _________________________________
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