by Francis Jock

Created on: December 01, 2010

You might think that saving money needs neither explanation or justification these days. And yet we continue to spend ourselves into unfathomable debt at an alarming rate. The lack of savings and unbridled debt have driven millions of homes into foreclosure and has lead our national economy to the brink of collapse.

If you doubt the benefit of saving money, consider the words of Joyce Brothers:

"Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately and gives you a lift.... The hangover comes the day after."

These days, it seems like we are all suffering from the hangover after the party. In this instance, the party was the housing bubble that burst in 2008, leaving us with Trillions of dollars of unforeseen and unprepared for debt. The near-economic collapse has touched all of us in one way or another, some more severely than others. But the housing bubble isn't the only reason for the current malaise, the other spending culprit is the credit card.

Having to make monthly payments to credit cards with interest rates higher than savings rates should be a crime, but it is not. This is how banks continue to earn money, grow the amount of money they can lend and invest, and pay their shareholders higher dividends, year after year. We borrow money every time we use our credit card, and we have become accustomed to charging everything from groceries to stock market investments.

The government requires that all banks have a reserve, or emergency fund set aside to cover any financial losses they may incur. The government also provide a safety-net guarantee against the loss of depositor's money through the FDIC. The government doesn't require or guarantee that you will save money, but you should.

Saving money is the antidote, or cure for the hangover of credit buying and the habit of reckless spending. For some, the cure is worse than the fatigue, depression, nausea, thirst, and pounding headache-hangover presently known as the worst recession since the depression. But let's all face up to our party-going ways, we have to take the cure if we are ever going to recover and party again.

So, how do we get started on the road to financial recovery? It begins with little steps, because we can't make big ones without wiping out our 401Ks or any other investments meant to sustain our life-style during retirement. There are plenty of money saving tips that will help you get started, but like Nike says, "Just Do It!" There's no such thing as painless money savings when

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