While there's little we can do about politicians' habits of overspending and overpromising, there's a lot we as individuals can do about our own finances. This week, my wife and I will once again be 100% debt free. Our home is paid for, but we took out a loan last year to buy an airplane and expanded it this year to buy her a new car. It'll be paid off this week. It'll be nice to be debt free again.

The article once again mistates people's savings. If by savings they're looking at bank savings accounts, then yes, the savings rate is very low. Why shouldn't it be? When you factor in the very low interest rates paid and the taxes you have to pay on the small amount of interest you get, bank savings accounts are absolutely, 100% guaranteed to lose money compared to the rate of inflation. Other than maintaining an emergency fund of liquid assets, it makes very little sense to put money into a bank account.

Now, if the definition of savings is expanded to include investments like 401Ks, IRAs, and the like, then the overall savings rate for most people is well over the 1% stated in the article. For my wife and myself, that rate is more like 25+%.