Why Financial Gurus and Newsletter Writers Are Worried Americans Are "Saving" Their Money!

The truth is both capitalists and socialists fear citizens "saving" their own money in savings banks accounts or government treasury securities.

Because that is equivalent to your withdrawing money from "trading" type speculative activities.

The first, they say, won't keep up with inflation.

The second, they say, you need lot of money to get hold of some.

But the present economic situation and financial realities belie both arguments.

As for savings bank, at least the money in dollar values remains the same and is guaranteed up to a limit by the government in case of the bank's failure, provided that bank has insured its accounts through FDIC. It won't disappear one day into thin air. And the average person don't hold all his money in such accounts.

As for the treasuries, the argument that you need lots of money is no more the truth. Some are available on the government's website to the average American directly with no obligation to go through an intermediary.

Unlike the saving bank account, if you have the patience and the knowledge to buy low and sell high, you may also come off profitable in the end. But that is not something your government can tell you or advertise, it is an individual's decision.

Then why the pundits are worried your money is being saved?

First of all, when you save, only your family benefits by building a safe haven against future uncertainties. The main street banks too get a temporary advantage having money to roll in the interim.

But that is not music to the ears of Wall Street, because, unless you throw your caution to the wind and throw your money into an upward inflationary spiral or a downward depressive vortex the way they want, they can't make money by taking positions against you.

Many investment publishers maintain message boards only to attract innocent lambs to be slaughtered by getting all of them to make similar positions. That makes mass killing of accounts easier.

As an individual, when you look at your money, you are thinking for a lifetime like the romantic woman spying a man with thoughts of spending a lifetime together.

When Wall Street looks at your money, they are thinking for a short time frame to make their money with yours whatever happens to yours, like the romantic man spying a woman with the myopic thought of spending only a night with her.

And if you still insist on long-term savings, then they will conveniently foist the "building a nest egg" or "saving for a rainy day" hoopla on you to peddle their myopic pension plans, though touted as long-sighted.

But what is the use of such pension plans, if you get whacked at both extremes with a double-whammy, be it the inflationary or the depressive extremes?

In inflation, they say your money lost value. In depression, they say you lost money. The final result is the same, whatever be the rhetoric - you get short-changed.

And they can escape the responsibility of mismanagement of your money with small-print disclosures when your pensions gets totally or partially wiped out.

They conveniently forget that in the middle stands the real person who matters - the YOU whose money needs to be preserved.

And those publications who claim to be capital preservation newsletters are centered on making you buy gold endlessly for a rainy day. But once the rainy day comes they never tell you to sell the gold at profit and leave you clutching you bars of gold or proofs of ownership which then have lesser values as the price of gold retreats. So unless you are resourceful on your own, you are hoarding golden bars or certificates until your death, something which gives you a sense of security on earth but one that you will never taking with you on your heavenly journey like the ancient Pharaohs.

Our society was converted to a consumer society from a saving society somewhere along the way started initially by our founding fathers.

Yes, businesses are needed for us as they provide jobs, goods and services WE NEED. Problems started when they changed their focus to invent ARTIFICIAL NEEDS and through clever manipulation of the customers' egos, established them as OUR ABSOLUTE NEEDS. Then to keep up with the joneses, we the customers go on an uncontrolled spending spree. That was living beyond our means which no economy can bear too long, even if we each had hundred credit cards.

I have no problem with that because I was a beneficiary of that system, having been born and brought up, and lived in that atmosphere all these years through ten presidencies. I was employed by businesses that thrived on such egoistic spending of the people.

Then why should I complain now? I am complaining now because the way the same newsletter gurus are eating their own words after teaching us whatever they told us were the only truths:

Now, in their infinite wisdom, the gurus say USA should not create more jobs because if everybody gets wages, then that will start a spending spree and will ultimately end up in inflation!

So, before they prided in increasing employment numbers as a proof of a capitalistic economy. Now they don't want jobs!

Before they touted keeping up with the joneses as the catalyst for a thriving business environment. Now they don't want you to go on a spending spree!!

So then, the only option left for the people is to save. Again, the gurus don't want that too!!!

But that is akin to blowing hot and cold, changing color like chameleons or running in endless circles. That means they have been opportunistically publishing newsletters with an eye on our subscriptions only.

Don't let any Wall Street peddler browbeat you into submission by endlessly quoting big names such as Cantillon, Hume, Malthus, Ricardo, Smith, Mill, Say, Marx, Bastiat, Jevons, von Böhm-Baw, Tobit, Tobin, Hayek or Friedman.

That no consensus have been reached on the theories proposed by those doyens of economics long after their deaths proves that none are infallible.

It is a high-priced lesson for me, rather a belated one after almost fifty years and ten presidents, to arrive at that priceless conclusion:

An individual is his or her own best investment adviser. One need only the basic arithmetic education to make decisions on one's own money, unencumbered by outside influences.

One's unfetterd mind will let it be known when something appears too good to be true. It will also tell when a particular investment makes one uncomfortable. Only when an outsider interferes in that thought process, one has lost the maximum money. At other times the natural instinct of the individual for self-preservation has come to one's rescue.

When your mind is clouded by opinions of others, the urge to keep up withe joneses too creeps in. Then caution is thrown to the winds.

When you do your own math, you are thinking of the well-being of your own close circle - you and your family. No considerations of subscriptions or management fees bother you.

So remember, you are the best investment adviser for your own money, not somebody else, even if that somebody happens to be the world's most renowned economist or your own best buddy.

Trust your own brain and your natural instinct for self-preservation when it comes to your own hard-earned money. No, trusting oneself is not arrogance. Otherwise God wouldn't have given each of us a brain.

And the experiences and circumstances of each one of us are unique, needing unique solutions and plans. Nobody can and does think about you, your loved ones and your own money like you do!

So, with all humility and confidence, be your own financial expert and manager. Nobody else can. The faculties the Good Lord endowed you with and your life's experiences are more than enough for that, considering the abysmal track record of the so-called money managers and experts.