Improving Savings Incentives for the Poor


 

Publication Date: August 2009

Publisher: National Center for Policy Analysis (U.S.)

Author(s): D. Sean Shurtleff

Research Area: Social conditions

Type: Brief

Abstract:

Americans have been saving less and less of their after-tax income for the past 15 years. The annual personal savings rate averaged 8 percent from 1929 to 2000, but reached a historical low of 0.4 percent in 2005. With the onset of the 2008-2009 recession, however, the savings rate rose again to more than 6 percent.