How to save money

An active saver can be defined as follows:

* You have the habit of saving money since very young
* You were taught the value of money by your parents
* You diligently save some money each and every month
* You read about financial news, for example from the web

A survey released in 2009 by HSBC Direct indicates that 22% of online Americans are active savers. The rest are categorized as everyone else. Anyone can learn to be an active saver and it is best to start early.

A survey conducted by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling reported the following about Americans:

* 1 in 3 adults have no savings
* For those aged between 18 and 34 years old, about 50% have no savings at all
* 1 in 3 American adults do not save part of their income for retirement
* 57% do not keep a budget

Survey on Malaysians

It would be interesting to know how we Malaysians would fair in a similar survey like the one above. Well, in a 2008 survey done by Citi's Financial Quotient (Fin-Q) comprising of 500 online interviews on 40 set questions, the results were less than favorable.

* Only 2 in 5 Malaysians put aside money as savings
* Only about 28% Malaysians have a monthly budget
* 1 in 5 has savings that would last only 4 weeks in the event of a job loss
* The average savings Malaysians have in reserve is about 11 weeks

It all boils down to how financially literate you are. Most Americans rate themselves low where 2 in 5 choose to rate themselves a C, D or F when it comes to personal finance. How would you rate yourself?

So, do you choose to be categorized as an active saver or not?