too much spending, too little saving. isn t that what got us into this trouble in the first place? terry savage is with us. nice to see both of you. terry, this week the national institute on retirement security said the retirement crisis is worse than it thought. even after a big stock market rally, it says the typical working age household has only $3,000 saved for retirement. message is, spend, spend, spend, spend, it s good for the economy, we need it for america to recover but shouldn t it be save, save, save? i think it s a seesaw and belongs in between. healthy spending is good for the economy. think back to 2009, when nobody spent anything out of fear. and restaurants were empty, everybody got laid off, wait tretss and busboys. and car show rooms were empty, auto manufacturers laid off employees. we need healthy spending, consumers have learned a very important lesson about dangers of excessive spending, credit
and debt. we need spending to keep the economy going. we don t need people to spend their way into debt. and belatedly, i hope the younger generation learned the lesson that a little bit saved for retirement in your 20s, time works magic if you let it grow and invest. people approaching retirement are realizing that they only can save their way out of it and that s a real tough spot to be in. et cetera specially when your job is insecure and you play not get to work the extra three years that may make up the difference. everyone needs to save more earlier and spend smartly. some of the things we spend money on are not the best prioritied. and that just comes fromming smart. you ve been asking this question, can we afford this consumer economy? can we? right. well the short answer is, no, we can t, not if we keep going the way we re going now. we are americans, right? we want what we want when we want it. now. the problem is right now. the problem is it s not sustainable on a
process in terms of what you re buy, be diversified, university opportunities like this to meet with financial adviser and talk about goals longer term. this is what creates opportunities. we believe that we re heading into a 15 or 20-year equity bull market and the issue with u.s. investors in particular is, we think now they re under exposed equities and that s a real opportunity for the next 15 to 20 years to be reallocated. you made me feel better, brian. ta thank you. coming up, former president george w. bush once told americans, he told them how they could help the economy. i encourage you all to go shopping more. is a recent surge in spending saving the economy or dooming us to repeat history? everyone s retirement dream is different; how we get there is not.
spend, baby, spend. you the consumer are supposed to be the engine of this economy. a quick check shows all is not well. investors are worried the economy s not enough to adding slowing growth in china, uncertainty is back. but many of you, you never felt certain to begin with. a new cnn/orc poll finds 44% say they re worse off than a year ago. yet you are spending. spending rose 3.4%, the fastest pick up since the fourth quart or of 2010. u.s. economy relies on your consumption to thrive. but that spending is coming at the exspence of something else, saving. americans saved 2.3% of their disposable income in the first quart air post-recession low.
large plots of land available for large-scale development. as other parts of the country do, the southwest, southern california, florida, other parts of the south overall. reporter: the solution? buy an old home and then renovate it. this was and will be the living room. okay. reporter: the cost of gutting and rebuilding this interior, $400,000. we just decided to pull the trigger and do a 100% gut on walls, electrical, and plumbing. reporter: renovation spending is expected to rise 20% this year. homeowners who are staying put are also spending. the cost to renovate this kitchen, $60,000. people have their financial resources and the destir to lsi in a home that they want. reporter: he s concerned rising interest rates may discourage potential buyers.