Recession breeds lifelong savings habit, says report

WASHINGTON (12/31/09)—As the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) has reported, through October, year-to-date credit union savings balances experienced their fastest growth since 2001. According to a recent report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the increased consumer attention to savings may not disappear any time soon.

The National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit research organization that says on its website is dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works.

The organization's report on savings rates said an upside to the country's ongoing financial crisis is that it may forge a new, lifelong devotion to savings among Americans between the ages of 18 and 25. (American Banker Dec. 30)

Recessions have a very formative effect on working young people, the report posits. Analyzing recessions between 1963 and 2006, the bureau found that younger folks who experience a recession feel a lack of control over their careers. They pin success more to luck than to their personal positive attributes or actions.

Such skeptical attitudes just increase if that young person has been fired due to the impact of a recession or if they have seen a relative lose a job. The attitude may be more realistic than cynical, according to the report, because while the national unemployment rate is currently around 10%, among 16- to 19-year-olds it is more than 26%.

CUNA figures show that the new attention to savings goes

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across the board—at least for now. Credit union savings balances increased 1.6% in October 2009 and 10.3% during the first 10 months of 2009. During October, share drafts rose 7.3%, followed by regular shares (2.6%), and money market accounts (1.8%). One-year certificates increased 0.8%, while individual retirement accounts decreased 0.6%.

"With members in no mood to take on additional debt, credit union investment portfolios rose almost 30% so far this year," Steve Rick, CUNA senior economist, reported to News Now.

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