It’s always a good time to save, but the fact of the matter is people don’t have the money to save. It’s not like we don’t want to…

There’s little or No interest on return for savers so no incentive to do so .

Fair play to you Rodrigo, €15 grand a year, is a nice little bit of savings.

Saving ? Most people have nothing to save

I wish I had that option. I was saving as much as €15,000 per year up until 2007. Now I’m using that money to the tune of around €6000 per year on top of my meagre wages just to keep the wolf from the door.

If you’re repaying debt, how is that a use of ‘spare’ money? Unless you’re at the top of the tree, for most people debt repayment is not an optional activity.

Inflation for a basket of goods in running at about 6% a year(this was in the papers last week), Keeping your money in a bank at 2% interest – if even you are getting that is silly.

You are being robbed by inflation and the banks. Luckily for me I am sitting pretty with some decent mining stocks. People here have no clue what is coming down the line – most willl lose EVERYTHING once the bond bubble melts down.

Bad? No it’s impossible.

Saving is so 80′s. Poor is the new black.

Adebayo P. Flynn

Jasus Rodrigo . GIS a loan ?

Unfortunately it is this that is keeping us from emerging from the downturn. People obviously have the right to do what they want with their money but if people spent their spare money instead of paying down debt we would emerge a lot quicker.

The main issue facing us now is the depressed local economy and so consumer spending needs to be incentivised. Traditionally this was done by lowering interest rates however they are at record lows and still nobody is spending.

The government needs to do something proactive in tackling the lack of demand such as cuts to VAT or tax cuts to low and middle class earners. Only when the economy is back on track should we worry about cutting spending.