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To: Joan Osland Graffius who wrote (161116)	4/20/2002 12:25:16 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 436258

We do know the American does not have savings in the S&L's and banks. I think you mean to say that the largest percentage of the money Americans have saved is not in banks and savings accounts, it is in other assets. If this is true than there is even more savings than this graph indicates. Or are you saying these assets in banks aren't American? If these assets aren't American are you saying that foreigners own all those CDs and savings deposits? I'll concede that there is a percentage or foreign ownership, but certainly not a significant amount. Foreigners tend to own government bonds and bills. You say you observe a lot of 401s with loans, do you personally know any people who have no savings aside from those drummed up for the latest savings crisis story in the media? I do know a few, but they are an extremely small percentage of the people I know, most have alcohol problems or have recently gone through some trauma like a divorce, extended job loss or illness where their savings were depleted. Even those who saved nothing are being bailed out by having their parents die leaving them money. Not a week goes by where someone doesn't ask for my advice as to where to put cash, whether to keep it in money market, CDs or put it in bonds or stock funds. I get a lot of inquires about paying off mortgages early because other rates are so low. I'm constantly dealing with Boomers seeking return on their savings that according to the media they don't have. The other thing I observe directly is that no matter how much people have put away they are convinced it won't be enough or they are convinced whatever everyone else put away it is not enough. Whereas three years ago all I talked to were people who were contemplating early retirement because their assets had grown at such a rapid rate that it made retiring at 50 a possibility. Perhaps that's why people feel so poor now, they fell from such a great height that they can't see that they are in fact right where they should be. I remember back 20 years ago the media chided us for not saving enough for retirement and they continued to do so for all those years (perhaps it is national journalists who have no savings since most live in NYC), yet it was precisely that public savings that helped create the massive bull market in equities since 1982 (that and the money injected by the Fed). By 1999 I didn't know anyone who wasn't talking about the money they put away for retirement, even the twenty somethings that worked for me. There's a national obsession with retiring. Its comical when you consider that the most unhappy people right now are those that don't have jobs! Every day I deal with people who seem bent on dying with the most money they will ever have.