Savings for Life: A Pathway to Financial Security for All Americans

Among America’s founding principles is the ideal that each citizen’s ability to succeed—to achieve financial security, to do better than the generation that came before—should be as limitless as individual potential. A sound national savings policy is essential to achieving the American Dream. Policymakers have long identified saving as the key to a secure retirement. But the benefits of saving are far broader. Having the opportunity to save at every point in the life cycle enables people to get an education, to buy a home, to start a business, to sustain them in emergencies—all springboards to financial security and upward mobility. Higher rates of saving can also strengthen the national economy. Greater household assets can lead to a more educated workforce with more employment opportunities, a key to national productivity in our increasingly global economy.