There was a good article on Yahoo! Finance this week titled 6 (worthless) excuses for not saving money…

“Everyone knows the key to building wealth is through saving and investing. Yet last year, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed that Americans had a negative savings rate for the first time since the Great Depression.”

As the title suggests, the article went on to say that of all of the excuses that Americans had for not saving money, very few of them were actually legitimate reasons not to be putting money back. Rob Bennett, of PassionSaving.com, adds “Unless you’re working in a sweatshop and you’re getting paid 12 cents an hour, you can save.”

I would guess that this is even more of an issue for entrepreneurs and work-at-home parents, as they tend to reinvest in their businesses continually instead of putting a percentage of profits aside into savings. This makes sense during the start-up years of course, but somewhere along the way it pays to set up a savings plan.

As I read the article, some of the thoughts that crossed my mind were the current cost of living, the fact that more and more parents are raising their children alone (single, and with or without the help of extended family), fuel prices doubling in recent years, etc.

It’s reasons like this that most people choose to work from home in the first place - so that they can get ahead financially and still have time to live, when traditional jobs just dont ‘cut it’.

After reading the article, I decided to take a look at Rob’s website. I liked what I saw above the fold there:

“Freedom is exciting. Everyone wants to be more free. So why do most of us do so little to win our financial freedom?

It’s because most of us save to pursue a boring saving goal–an age 65 retirement. That sort of saving–I call it Sacrifice Saving–does not work. This site is about a different kind of saving, Passion Saving. This site is about an approach to saving that works.”

–> Passion Saving

Saving for the future is important to all of us, but according to national statistics… very few are actually making that investment. If you need a boost in this department, or even if you think you’ve got it all figured out, check out Rob’s site at the link above. I think you’ll find (like I did) that he offers a fresh new perspective that will motivate you to get on track with a solid savings plan.

Tags: nest egg, saving money, savings account, building wealth, investing