Back in the heady days of 2005, 2006 and 2007, CNN had a series that profile “extreme savers” who behaved against the grain, tucking away 25%-50% of their income when most of us were spending it up. Well, it seems as if saving is back in vogue, because I just saw a new Extreme Saver slide show on CNN Money website.
The profiles are still interesting tidbits of different families and how they’ve managed to save so much (I think the saving percentage is calculated from net income instead of gross income). The common themes of each featured family are: healthy income and financial discipline.
One story stood out to me: Nicole and Mitch of Lake Oswego, Oregon, has been saving $250 a month for their daughter since she was born. She is now 11, and they have $50,000 in her 529 college savings plan. WOW! (By the way, Don at Money Reasons is doing something similar for his kids). I hope that in the event that I become a parent, my partner and I will be in a position to and have the diligence to do the same.
These stories certainly inspire me to reexamine my own saving efforts. Granted, many of these people profiled make a higher income than I do, but they also have higher expenses (mortgage and kids are the two big ones). Still there are examples of single-earner families saving big percentages. Christin and Patrick of Williamsville, NY, live on his $75,000 a year salary, and save 38% with Christin as a stay-at-home mom and 2 kids.
I hope CNN Money continues with these Extreme Savers profiles.
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I always liked reading these in the past. Those and the Millionaire in the Making features they used to do.
Argh! Just as I was becoming more comfortable about spending money instead of hording it… Balance is so tough!
Wow-these folks are an inspiration, that's for sure. I thought I was doing okay with about 18% saved monthly between retirement and e-fund accounts, but wow, 38% or more, that's something!
On the Money Magazine "panel", I receive information about submissions for upcoming articles and actually applied for this one. While I'm within the threshold of these other families, they definitely had some impressive stories!
Been a while – hope things are well
Nice. Let us know when you are profiled. (Hmm now every time I see someone who is an engineer I'm going to think.. is that FinEngr?!)
These are some great pf tips. It's always nice tor ead thise once and awhile to stay on track!
Thanks for this link. I love these stories…they are very inspiring.
Thank for the most excellent mention!
My son (who is 10) has $52,000 as his displosal (~40,000 in a 529, and 12,000 in a UGMA brokerage account), my daughter has about $41,000 (but she's only 6…)
I'll have to check out the links, I love stories like these!!!
So you have put away almost $100,000 for two kids under the age of 10. YOU should be featured on Extreme Savers! Or maybe they should do a series on Power Saver Parents?
Slowly, but surely, I guess I have
If you do it a little at a time from when they are young (then increasing it more as you can affort it), it's not so bad… My sister and her husband started a 529 a few years before her daughter was born. She assigned herself as the beneficiary, then after her daughter was born, she designated the baby as the beneficiary… She'll end up doing better than I did, but you almost have to these days
Cool, love these series! Thanks for highlighting!
I found the extreme savers article useless. It's easy to be an "extreme saver" when you have a combined income in the 6 figures.
I also read that article, I think its great that many of them have saved more than 10%. I don't believe that saving 10% is enough these days.