The concept of saving has been around for many years. Saving money was applauded and seen as a good strategy, while debt used to be frowned on and portrayed as a very bad strategy. You only borrowed money from someone if it was a last resort and then you had to pay them back as quick as possible. That concept has totally been reversed with our current society and today debt is a way of life. As early as the 1920’s saving money began to be “un-American”. The concept of living a better life became more and more prevalent thus the concept of debt seemed less and less evil.
 Saving money is not only important for your retirement and future planning, but also important for short term goals as well. We get caught up in needing something immediately and can’t wait a few months to pay cash for something. We finance the new LCD television with a credit card that has 18% interest paying $45 per month for one year instead of saving $45 a month for 1 year. Financing the TV would cost you a total of $550 and saving would give you $547 leaving you $47 extra after paying for the TV not to mention you would probably save more by paying for the TV with cash.Â