The average American has less than $1000 in their savings account --- 62%. Is this the epitome of living on the edge?

SPC You said you managed your Mother's portfolio after you Dad passed. I had to do the same thing with my Mother. She still had funds when she pased and I took care of her finances for 18 years. In fact I had to take over all her business for about 8 years. There is a learning cruve but I also applied it to my saving plan. It worked out well for both of us.

Yes, Father passed in 2005, My mother placed all her trust in a Financial Advisor that was a friend of the Family. She did well investing during good times but then 2008 hit and she just sat there silently until more than 50% of the portfolio was lost, she finally called me after she found out my Mother was stuffing unopened brokerage statements in her dresser and praying over them. I asked her what took her so long to notify someone else in the family and she stated "Well I was waiting on someone to call me with direction"......unbelieveable because she had no past direction during good times. So I had to fire her, initially she tried to end run me around my Mother stating I was after her money.........which really pizzed me off. So I directed my Mother to her lawyer to ask her lawyer if I could even touch her money without her permission. Turns out my Mother was her largest account and I sent her out of business by pulling the accounts. Anyways, we are at the 2/3 point of rebuilding the original capital amount and it is still growing while she is able to pull out a nice amount to live on a year. So I am happy again. Been through several bozo financial advisors since then, each I set a annual target ROI of 6-7% for and as soon as they missed it, fired them and moved on to the next. Current Financial Advisor is smarter than al the rest and uses programmed training like it should be used instead of buying at market prices. Interestingly enough the current financial advisor does not have all the certifications the other bozos did but he knows what he is doing, doesn't try to sell me crap.....and that is all I wanted.

It is sad about Parents aging they get more dependent on you as a kid but you cannot get complete control of their finances unless you get them declared legally incompetent. Even a Financial Power of Attorney.....which I have, still requires me to get her approval on major financial decisions and the financial firm or advisor always has to conference her in on the phone and hear her approve what I am doing. Major pain in the azz.

One more thing, we are both Catholic. I was visiting with her once and we both went to church together. The clergy were really friendly with her and talking about past events they attended together and going out to dinner and such. I thought.....this is kind of strange my pastor at my church in Texas does not treat me this way. Found out she wrote them a check for over $xx,000 for a crucifix which the church really did not need. In her mind it was a down payment on the buy your way to heaven program. So I had a sit down with her. Explained to her while she is living.....no more large withdrawls like that. She can give all her money to the Church via her will and that's fine with me but she needs it while she is alive to live on. So that was the end of that. I have her accounts setup electronically so I can login and spot any large withdrawls now via the Internet. She has been fairly good so far (it's her money so I can't dog her over it only make sure she does not get carried away).

Col Lenertz. Sir. I am beginning to believe the world does live on smartphones. You ever notice just how many people play with their phones. They don't talk anymore, they play with phones.

MSgt John McGowan - Absolutely! There is no reason to contribute no less that the amount that the company will match, otherwise it's throwing away free money! For those that think they can't afford that amount, consider the tax advantage of the pre-tax contribution and you'll see there is not that big of a difference in the actual take home pay (in most cases anyway).

Col Joseph Lenertz absolutely concur with everything (except the flip phone) :)! I honestly think we are years away or maybe in the midst of another crisis.

MSG The compound interest works well on any saving account if you leave it alone. I retired from my second job when I was 58. Way early to draw on my 401k from my company. When I turned the age to draw they had extended drawing on it by a year, So it was about 14 years my account just set. It doubled in those 14 years. My only problem the company didn't start it early enough for me. Many young people do not seee the value of something like a 401k and you just can't tell them. If there is free money (matching funds) they should a least sign up for that much.

MSG Wade Huffman definitely not surprised. I think we all have the relative or close sibling that asks for a couple hundred bucks to hold them over until payday!