Savings

Worried about how you're going to pay for the holidays? Here's a plan: Find painless ways to save on things you pay for all year. There are plenty of opportunities, if you know where to look. "If you treat a few big things as discretionary purchases and shop around, you can save hundreds of dollars," said Steve Krenzer, president of Experian's interactive media group, which operates LowerMyBills.com. Here are five money-saving ideas.

Americans again spent everything they made and then some last year, pushing the personal savings rate to the lowest level since the Great Depression more than seven decades ago. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the savings rate for all of 2006 was a negative 1%, meaning that not only did people spend all the money they earned but dipped into savings or increased borrowing to finance purchases. The 2006 figure was lower than the negative 0.

YOU have to pay the mortgage, taxes and car payments, and that can leave little for a grand tour of Europe or a fancy cruise. But with discipline and diligence, families can save for that trip of their dreams. Financial advisors say it takes a plan, and the sooner you get started, the sooner you will be on that trip. Here are 10 tips to help make the dream a reality. 1.

The federal government has been urging people to sock away money for their retirement, but many low-income families would be foolish to take that advice, according to a report released Wednesday by a Washington think tank. Low-income households face "astronomical" penalties for saving, according to the report by the National Center for Policy Analysis. For example, each $1 saved by a single mother earning $15,000 a year could cost her $2.60 in higher taxes and lost government benefits.

If you think the only way to get rich is to win the lottery, you've got plenty of company. A survey released last week found that more than one-fifth of all Americans viewed the lottery as the most viable route to wealth. That was especially true for people of modest means, according to the survey by Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Planner's Assn. It's a widely held belief, but it's dead wrong.

U.S. consumer spending shot ahead a strong 0.9% in December as holiday shoppers, enjoying a respite from inflation, tapped savings and assets to make purchases, a government report showed Monday. The free-spending ways of the American consumer kept the saving rate -- normally the percentage of after-tax income socked away -- in negative territory for a seventh straight month. For all of 2005, the rate was minus 0.5%, the lowest since the Great Depression.

Are Americans saving enough for retirement? Many financial service companies, citing a paltry U.S. savings rate, say we're not. But the savings rate takes into account only how much people are saving from their current earnings. A recent A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. "nest egg" survey, which looked at the savings rate as well as how much people have accumulated in savings, says we are. Another recent study, by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, provides a nuanced answer.

Persistence pays. The average nest egg for people who have been in 401(k) plans for at least six years topped $100,000 for the first time, according to a survey released Thursday. Their account balances averaged $102,014, up 9.6% from $93,085 in last year's survey. "The discipline of saving pays off," said Sarah Holden, senior economist with the Investment Company Institute, a mutual fund trade group that sponsored the study with the Employee Benefits Research Institute.

Christopher Hall, 33, has been saving small change all of his life. When he was 13, his mother gave him a coin-counting machine. Ever since then, whenever there was something big that he couldn't quite afford, he'd cash in jars full of coins. Years ago, the hair stylist used accumulated change to buy a car. He later cashed in $2,500 in coins to make a down payment on his house. Recently, he reached into his jars to help pay for a remodel of his Costa Mesa hair salon, Split Ends.