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In 2022, the Americanpersonal saving rate fell to a low not seen sincethe Great Recession.

 I think a lot of peoplehave been just kind of cooped up during thepandemic times and now we're transitioning plusinflation.

 So it definitely hasbeen a little bit harder.

 Economists will look atthe savings dynamic and a sort of benign lightsavings accrued over the early part of thepandemic, and that's starting to get spentdown.

 But on the personal level, though, that'snot a pleasant process.

 This real time dip insaving is stressing out a lot of people.

 70% say they are stressedabout their personal finances, and thatincludes 57% of people earning $100,000 ormore.

 And the main factorscontributing to financial stress for the sixfigure set include inflation, economy wideinstability, interest rates and a lack ofsavings.

 The basic necessities oflife substantially burden your income.

 It becomesdifficult to save.

 That said.

 Americans are sittingwith a lot more savings than they had in thepast.

 According to bank depositrecords, Americans as a whole are still betteroff than they've traditionally been.

 How much depends onwhich side of the income distribution you're on.

 Regardless, Americansacross the board were drawing down thosesavings in the final quarter of 2022.

 So why did Americansstop saving and what effect will that have onthis massive group of people that we call theeconomy? My name is Mykail, butthe interwebs know me as the bougie budgeterbecause I make money easy.

 I am currentlybased in Phoenix, Arizona.

 The majority of UShouseholds use bank accounts.

 Mykailrepresents one of these households.

 I do take about 8% of mytotal income, and that is tomy 401k contributions.

 My company matches at8%.

 I also try to save anadditional 15% as well as another about10% of my take home pay I put towards my investinggoals as well.

 So my personal savingsrate after my take home, I shoot for about a 15%and I have my savings auto deposited rightinto my high yield savings account becauseif I do not do that, then I will accidentallyspend it and I am a recovering over spender.

 And that was my solutionto not overspending.

 Collectively, Americanshave trillions more in savings than they didprior to the pandemic.

 For a broad swath ofAmericans, their financial condition isstill probably better than it waspre-pandemic.

 But those cash cushionsare deflating for the first time in years.

 The personal saving ratereflects how much income Americans hold ontoafter their taxes and regular spending.

 It's basically just theamount of that that is not consumed.

 Much of that income,particularly for what I define broadly asunderserved communities, tends to go toward basicnecessities like housing, food, health care,transportation.

 In February 2023, thepersonal saving rate was hovering around 4.

5%.

 That's compared to along term average of just under 9%.

 You would see spikesaround the dates when those stimulus checkswere sent out and those were not getting spent.

 Of course, the otherthing that happened early in the pandemic ispeople were not spending money on the things thatthey were accustomed to spending on.

 As inflation has set in,the monthly savings rate has taken a tumble.

 This rate only describesone month of earning and saving.

 Take a look atthe total deposits held by customers and banksand you'll see that there is way more value inpeople's accounts than any time before thepandemic.

 A lot of people wouldpoint to excess savings that occurred early inthe pandemic, something like 2 to 2 and one halftrillion dollars in savings above what wewould have otherwise expected were saved byAmerican households.

 Over the past 9 to 12months, that stash of savings has eroded.

 It's probably somewherein the 1 to 1 and one half trillion range.

 You had folks across thecountry accumulating a bit of a war chest ofsavings, and that really has helped to buoy theeconomy, particularly in a place like the USwhere consumption is such a big part of GDP.

 The top half of earnershave over $1 trillion in excess savings.

 That'snearly three times as much as the bottom half,according to federal economists.

 But theybelieved the lower half still collectively holdshundreds of billions in excess savings.

 By their count, itbreaks down to about 5500 per household.

 A notehere, this may not mean that you have $5,000 inspare cash laying around.

 It may have gone to payoff that amount in student debt or amortgage or a car or to wards your retirement.

 37% of Americans have nottouched their pandemic savings and 45% ofAmericans either haven't touched it or have takenout a little bit.

 But the majority isintact.

 Only 17% of Americanshave pretty much exhausted their pandemicsavings, though.

 That cushion may bebeginning to shrink.

 Inflation, a nd theimplications for that across categories,whether it be food, whether it be fuel,whether it be rents, you're seeing costinflation that eats into clearly people's currentincome, but also to the extent they havesavings, it also eats into those savingsbecause everyday things are just more expensive.

And if you think about in a pre-pandemic worldwhen a typical black family had about fivedays of liquid savings, there's not a whole lotof financial slack in the system to be able toweather periods of time without income.

 Economists believe thatthe extra savings have so far kept people spendingand the country from recession.

 At the sametime, a huge swath of the population is livingpaycheck to paycheck, according to recentsurveys.

 Take a look at our pollof 1000 people across the country.

 What you'llfind is that 69% are pessimistic about thecurrent situation in the economy and they'repessimistic about the future.

 That's an alltime high.

 I think the consumer isdoing pretty well.

 The concern I have isthat the whole world is talking about thisrecession that we're going to have, which wewere supposed to have last year.

 Then we weresupposed to have the first quarter of thisyear.

 Now we're supposed to have it the secondhalf of this year.

 Sometimes when you scarepeople enough into thinking there's goingto be a recession, they will stop consuming andit can be a self-fulfillingprophecy.

 Federal economists notethat the low interest rates of recent yearsare backstopping many Americans.

 When thisrate goes to zero, the cost to loan out cashdeclines.

 And you can see theeffect playing out on this other chart.

 Personal interestpayments sank below longer term trendgrowth.

 With these excess savings, the economyremains strong, but they expect those stockpilesto dwindle rapidly.

 These dynamics areobservable around the world.

 Nearly alldeveloped countries have declining householdsavings.

 Back in the States, trouble in theregional banking sector may affect the futuredirection of interest rates.

 The Fed is trying to slowdown the economy.

 That reduction inlending by regional banks might very well do thatwork for them, which means that we may benear the end of interest rate hikes.

 The Fed's interest ratecan affect how much money you make from saving.

 When the rate goes up,putting money away becomes more valuable.

 But if it goes down,that could change what your account offers interms of interest when you are in.

 A rising interest rateenvironment.

 Savings rates do tend tolag that process.

 So right now the Fed hasrates close to 5%.

 I doubt that very manypeople can get a 5% savings rate on atypical savings or checking account.

 It's a lot happeningright now.

 People are losing jobs.

 There's just so muchhappening that it's okay if you're not having a15% savings rate, but just as long as you'restarting somewhere.

 There are many differentways to save your money, but different methodscan generate returns for you as a saver in theform of interest.

 There's no easier way tosave money than to have money taken out of yourpaycheck before you get it and have it go into aretirement plan That's either getting a taxdeduction plus tax deferral, or it may justbe tax free for life if it's a Roth.

 But eitherway, the money's taken out first.

 Cash stored under yourmattress effectively delivers a negativereturn, at least when the US has inflation.

 As prices rise, your oldmoney is worth less when it comes to yourstandard checking account.

 Big banks likeWells Fargo, TD Chase and Bank of Americaroutinely offer low returns.

 By contrast,high yield savings accounts can delivermuch more in interest.

 The national average isincredibly low.

 I'm high yield all theway, especially for any dollars that I'm tryingto save.

 I suggest always anyshort term savings, any long term savings.

 I'mnot a fan of leaving in a savings account, butanything that's between six months to 24 monthsleave it in a high yield savings account.

 The national savingsinterest rate was less than 1% in 2023, butsome high yield accounts were netting 4%.

 That's much better thanin the past, but still lower than inflation.

 And you may be shockedthat you're still getting 0.

1 or 0.

3% and you caneasily get north of 4% withouttaking any undue risk on your cash.

 That's a gamechanger.

 But not every bank offersa high yield option and not everyone seeks themout.

 Roughly 6 million Americans were unbankedin recent years.

 This means they don'tuse checking or savings accounts.

 The mostcommon reasons were lack of funds, or they simplydon't trust banks.

 You've got to reset thethresholds to make sure banking is notburdensome to these individuals,particularly for folks who have lower income,lower net worth, to the extent that they arebanked, their money sits in checking and savingsaccounts.

 I think it's probably thecase that a lot of families are leavingsome money on the table.

 A high yield account isgoing to also offer a better rate than youmight get with a typical savings account.

 You might often have tohave a larger balance in that account to qualifyfor the higher rate.

 I had one of those momswho was also a money nerd just like me, and shehad a high yield savings account back in like2006 when the high yield savings rate was like8%.

 Banks are offering higherreturns for two reasons.

 Number one, they'recompeting for your business.

 And numbertwo, the interest rate hikes out of the Fedmake it easier for them to lend to you at afavorable rate.

 Smaller banks often usethis strategy to build their deposits.

 Even companies likeGoldman Sachs have used this tactic, andcompanies like Apple are getting into the game aswell.

 Other products, like certificates ofdeposit, can make your money work for you.

 I actually got my firstCD by myself without my mom.

 I was like, Youknow what? I'm probably not goingto use this until I graduate and I'll letthat mature.

 And I know that thatrate is locked in, which is a lot different froma regular savings account where that rate is notlocked in a.

 CD usually carries ahigher interest rate, but it also has a fixedterm.

 So your money is goingto be tied up in that product until the termends.

 So there is a give andtake there.

 But I think for a lot ofhouseholds, if they have the cash to invest overa certain period of time, the CD is a really goodoption right now.

 But no matter how you getit done, saving it all is a good start.

 Compound interest isreal.

 So to the extent thatyou can put some amount away, even if it's belowthe threshold that you had set out maybe a yearago or two years ago when the environment lookedvery different.

 That's okay.

 Don't be hard onyourself.

 Saving a dollar today is still more thansaving $0 today.

 So if you can only startsmall, start small and let that habit grow,you're still doing amazing.