May 25, 2025 • 17 mins
Saving money is the foundation of financial success and must be prioritized before investing or making major purchases. Starting with whatever amount you can save consistently creates the psychological foundation for future financial stability.
• Psychology of saving starts in your mind and spirit, influencing all financial decisions
• Emergency funds should cover 6-12 months of expenses for unexpected situations
• Create separate savings categories for different purposes like emergencies, travel, vehicles
• Current US household savings rate is only 3.90%, down from pandemic high of 32%
• Include children in age-appropriate money discussions to teach saving principles
• Start saving where you are - even 1% is better than nothing
• Money is a tool to be respected and used wisely, not worshipped
Start your savings plan today based on your current situation without beating yourself up about the past. Taking decisive action now puts you in control of your financial future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Living your Success 24-7 with Michael Caine.
I hope you all are doing well.
This year is running from us.
Whoa, it's in Superman speed.
Anyway, one thing that we can'tget rid of, ignore, add to or
(00:27):
subtract is time.
Although this podcast is notabout time, time is factored in
almost every discussion you have.
It's all relative to achievingyour goals, reaching milestones,
milestones or failing to aswell.
(00:48):
So Today I want to talk aboutmoney.
Yeah, it's appropriate, dylan,given the show is about living
your success.
It's not about making money,investing money.
No, right now we need to talkabout saving.
Uh-oh, uh-oh, dangerous subjectsaving.
(01:09):
What do you mean, Michael Caine?
Saving?
You heard of Rainy Day Fun,emergency Fun, the story of the
two squirrels one just saves hisnuts, the other one just spends
it.
Well, I want to talk about theone that saves those nuts.
(01:37):
You know, I know millions andbillions of people in this world
we live in are struggling.
So I know to talk about savingmay be something you don't want
to hear, but I would be remissif I didn't talk about saving.
(02:01):
And it's not to indict anyone,it's not to look down, put
people down or be overlyjudgmental, because I I've been
there, I've been.
I lived in the land of broke.
I lived in that, that sectionof town that, figuratively
(02:26):
speaking, that you know,struggled, struggled, toil and
struggle, but I neverexperienced the worst that has
happened to other people, so I'mblessed.
Yes, yes, but about savings.
(02:49):
Well, before you can invest,before you can pay off debt,
before you can buy a house, acar, you have to save your money
.
So it's so critical, your money.
(03:11):
So it's so critical.
It's so important that we talkabout the genesis of living in
this world and surviving andmoving from the survival state
to the thriving state, andhopefully this message is
received.
Well, again, it's no fingerpointing.
I've been in that land ofchallenges off and on throughout
(03:32):
my life, and so many otherpeople had it much worse that I
know of, and so this episode isto be one of encouragement, not
condemnation, but we do want tolight a fire to get people
(03:56):
moving in the right direction.
There's so many books out therebusiness books, personal
finance books and radio shows,tv shows, podcasts, talks about
oh, you're going to be rich insix months, rich in a million,
have a million dollars in fiveyears.
I'm not that show, and so myshow is to pump you up to
(04:20):
motivate, to help you motivateyourself to get to that level.
But that's not my main mission.
And he said well, isn't yourname in the title Living your
Success?
Yes, it starts with the mind.
I encourage you to read thatbook, psychology of Money.
I mean it really does start inyour mind.
(04:42):
I would say it starts in yourspirit, into your mind.
So I added another step and soit's important that you do this
sooner than later in your career, your job, your life I would
say elementary, elementaryschool Start saving those
(05:05):
pennies and dimes.
I did, I used to, when I was at.
I saved pennies and dimes andquarters and dollars from
birthday presents to Christmasto just because doing chores as
well, earning it as well as itbeing given to me as well.
I saved, always saved, afraction.
(05:27):
I miss that.
Michael Caine the one had hisstuff totally together and
didn't let anyone detour himuntil he grew up and then he
acted a fool, listening to otherpeople, trying to be like other
people, trying to impress otherpeople.
So I found my mind.
Try to impress other people,you know.
So I found my mind and I'mgoing to help.
(05:48):
I hope a lot of people findtheir mind If I stop listening
to other people following them.
You got to do, you be you.
And so First of all, yeah, youhave to earn money to save it.
So I'm going to have an entirepodcast about career and job
development, vocation and school, vocational or academic, and
(06:17):
we'll have a whole podcast onthat.
To earn the money so I'm atstep two here.
You have a means to earn money.
Now what to do with it?
So we're going to go On anotherepisode and just talk about the
workforce, labor, working,earning.
(06:39):
So right now I want to talkabout savings.
So so it's vitally importantthat when you earn your money,
your earmark excuse me, no frogin my throat, something like
that kind of dry.
(06:59):
Anyway, it's important that forevery dollar you earn, that you
save a portion of that for thefuture.
And keep in mind, folks, thefuture could be tomorrow you
could get a flat tire and haveto buy a new tire tomorrow,
don't you know?
(07:20):
So think in terms of short termzero to one year, and then one
to two or three years, and thenthree to four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten years.
Think in terms of segments asfar as what you need to save
your money for.
And so emergency fund isrepairs.
It could be the roof, the carstove, refrigerator breaks down,
(07:40):
bicycle, whatever.
These are necessities.
I'm not talking about thingsthat aren't necessities.
Okay, that's another podcasttip.
So we're going to use our senseand understand these are
necessities, not wants that youneed to prepare for a rainy day.
(08:01):
So let's say, for every dollarwe'll say, um, whatever you save
at is up to you, but I wouldsay as much as possible.
Now, aggressive people out there, like I once did, I saved half
of my income and then went downto 30, 25% of my income and to
(08:23):
damn near zero at one point.
That's when I lost my weight.
You know, stop saving and andjust spending it all.
And so then I got my mind back,started saving aggressively
again, and so I encourage you tostay on the road to saving that
pathway for emergency funds.
And, um, and once you have theemergency fund, which that
(08:49):
depends on your income, yourlifestyle expense, you know
could be, say, 10 percent ofyour money, 5 percent, 25
percent of your money foremergencies, or it'd be nice if
you have at least six months, atleast minimum to me.
Six months to a year, sixmonths is a drop dead is where
is where?
(09:09):
If you lost your job, you cansurvive six months to a year.
Six months is a drop dead asfar as where?
If you lost your job, you cansurvive six months for sure.
But now, outside of that,saving for survival, emergency
fund, saving for a new car, anew house, a vacation, college
for the kids, a class for you,travel for you, and so what I
(09:35):
did?
And I, oh my God, I don't knowwhat's that book's name.
Money is my Friend and I lovedthat book years ago.
I got it 30 some years ago, Idon't know where it is, and it
talked about saving, having amillionaire account, a financial
independent account.
And so I have these differentfunds of funds where one is for
(09:58):
a new vehicle, one is for travel, one is to do whatever we want
to do, one is for emergency, etcetera.
You get the idea and it's namedfor different things and it's
only used for that purpose onceit gets in there.
I know emergencies can happenwhere you need to dip, I
understand, for survival, you dowhat you got to do, but we're
(10:18):
talking about non-emergencies.
Save that money.
So it'd be nice if you couldsave.
10% would be good, 5%, 5 to 10.
Start where you are maybe 1%,but it should be something.
And so you're not alone.
(10:39):
You say, well, I'm the only onethat sucks, I'm not saving.
Well, let me give you a littlestatistic.
Right now, the householdsavings rate in the United
States is 3.90%.
So, out every dollar, you'resaving just under four cents of
every dollar.
Every $10, saving three, almost$4.
(11:04):
You get the idea that's nothing, but if it's all you can do,
it's all you can do.
Start where you are.
And the personal savings in theUnited States from 1959 till
2025, 8.40%.
Better than what it is now, butstill sucks.
(11:26):
Guess what period in history thesavings rate in the United
States just blew up.
Just great, all-time high.
You got it right the pandemic.
And 32%.
32%.
So out of every $100 earned,people were, on average, saving
(11:49):
$32.
We need to get back to thatlevel.
So just do you and worry aboutyou and pray for your other
family and friends and people.
You don't know that they dowhat they need to do too.
You can only do you.
So I encourage you to do asmuch as you can, but do
(12:11):
something.
Don't wait and say one day whenI get a better job, one day
when I, if it's pennies,whatever it is.
We're talking about thepsychology of saving money, and
that money is enough will leadinto another podcast about now
that you're saving all thismoney stream.
Where do I go on vacation?
Where do I invest my money?
What stocks, mutual funds, etfs, indexes, all that real estate?
(12:35):
Where do I invest it?
That's a whole nother episode.
But first, true, we got to earnit.
Next, we got to save it.
Save it for survival, save itfor fun and other activities in
this world.
So it's pretty piss poor.
Since the pandemic, 32% Wow.
(12:56):
In 2020 and in 2005 is a 1.40%,which is nothing, a penny on
every $10.
$10, not even a penny for everydollar.
(13:19):
So I encourage you to get a newhabit and save some money.
And I forgot maybe you want tosave for a wedding.
You want to put all that on acredit card, and a lot of those
people get divorced, by the wayand argue because they don't
have the money.
Spend up all the money on awedding as opposed to focusing
on the marriage.
Yeah, so that's another podcast.
(13:41):
I just gave you three podcastsI'm going to do in the future At
the center around just aboutsaving money and not spending
all your money.
It's not pretty.
A lot of people just foolishlyspending all their money.
They don't have anything leftover, and I'm talking about
things that are want to, notneeds.
(14:02):
It's one thing to spend it allon necessities and also you need
to teach your kids on theprinciples of saving their money
so that they can grow up to bewell-to-do.
I'm not saying filthy rich andmillionaires and all that stuff.
It's possible.
Another podcast, a lot ofpodcasts, are telling you oh,
(14:25):
they can get rich and get half50 million.
Maybe they can, but that's notthe point.
Point is to enjoy this life aswell.
It's not all about the money,but I tell you I'd rather have
money than not have it.
So, but we don't want toworship it, we just want to
respect it.
And it's a tool.
(14:45):
Money is a tool and so it'simportant that you get and use
it, just as it is a tool.
And possibly another podcast isgreed.
People get greedy and then theylose it all.
So be somewhatsemi-conservative with the bulk
of it.
Be somewhat semi-conservativewith the bulk of it.
(15:06):
Let's say 90, 95 percent andyou spend 5 percent doing risky
stuff.
If you want investing in stuffthat you may lose everything if
you put all your money in it.
So don't put all your money init.
Just have a fraction 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 percent at most, and that's
if you could afford it.
I'm not giving financial advice.
Give my opinion.
(15:27):
So it's important to have aplan, work with your significant
other and your family, havemoney talks every month, every
week, and where you discuss thedirection of the dollars the
Benjamins, so to speak and getthe kids involved so they
understand about saving.
Flexible.
(15:48):
They need to learn and not becontrolled.
You know age appropriate,obviously.
So don't want to preach to you,but just I want you to do well,
I want you to succeed and Iwant you to be able to go to the
next another podcast where it'swhat do we do with all the
savings now?
To invest some of it, save someof it, some of it air market
(16:12):
for different things that youwant to do.
Right, take a family on aEuropean vacation or something,
or?
Or just here in America is goodto stay occasions.
Do what you can Enjoy your life,stay patient, do what you can
Enjoy your life.
So I think I said it all today.
Well, I probably haven't saidit all, but I said enough.
(16:35):
So that's it.
Get your plan.
See how much you make, see howmuch you can comfortably save
each month, each week, however,you get paid.
And start from where you are.
Folks, don't beat yourself up.
If I would have, should havecould have already did that song
and dance.
Do what you can today andeverything will be okay.
(16:57):
Because why?
Because you say so, becauseyou're taking decisive action
and not just letting life pummelyou to the ground.
So that's it.
This is Living your Successwith Michael Caine 24-7, until
we see and talk to each othernext time.
Adios, my friends.
This is Living your Success 24-7 with Michael Caine.
I hope you all are doing well.
This year is running from us.
Whoa, it's in Superman speed.
Anyway, one thing that we can'tget rid of, ignore, add to or
(00:27):
subtract is time.
Although this podcast is notabout time, time is factored in
almost every discussion you have.
It's all relative to achievingyour goals, reaching milestones,
milestones or failing to aswell.
(00:48):
So Today I want to talk aboutmoney.
Yeah, it's appropriate, dylan,given the show is about living
your success.
It's not about making money,investing money.
No, right now we need to talkabout saving.
Uh-oh, uh-oh, dangerous subjectsaving.
(01:09):
What do you mean, Michael Caine?
Saving?
You heard of Rainy Day Fun,emergency Fun, the story of the
two squirrels one just saves hisnuts, the other one just spends
it.
Well, I want to talk about theone that saves those nuts.
(01:37):
You know, I know millions andbillions of people in this world
we live in are struggling.
So I know to talk about savingmay be something you don't want
to hear, but I would be remissif I didn't talk about saving.
(02:01):
And it's not to indict anyone,it's not to look down, put
people down or be overlyjudgmental, because I I've been
there, I've been.
I lived in the land of broke.
I lived in that, that sectionof town that, figuratively
(02:26):
speaking, that you know,struggled, struggled, toil and
struggle, but I neverexperienced the worst that has
happened to other people, so I'mblessed.
Yes, yes, but about savings.
(02:49):
Well, before you can invest,before you can pay off debt,
before you can buy a house, acar, you have to save your money
.
So it's so critical, your money.
(03:11):
So it's so critical.
It's so important that we talkabout the genesis of living in
this world and surviving andmoving from the survival state
to the thriving state, andhopefully this message is
received.
Well, again, it's no fingerpointing.
I've been in that land ofchallenges off and on throughout
(03:32):
my life, and so many otherpeople had it much worse that I
know of, and so this episode isto be one of encouragement, not
condemnation, but we do want tolight a fire to get people
(03:56):
moving in the right direction.
There's so many books out therebusiness books, personal
finance books and radio shows,tv shows, podcasts, talks about
oh, you're going to be rich insix months, rich in a million,
have a million dollars in fiveyears.
I'm not that show, and so myshow is to pump you up to
(04:20):
motivate, to help you motivateyourself to get to that level.
But that's not my main mission.
And he said well, isn't yourname in the title Living your
Success?
Yes, it starts with the mind.
I encourage you to read thatbook, psychology of Money.
I mean it really does start inyour mind.
(04:42):
I would say it starts in yourspirit, into your mind.
So I added another step and soit's important that you do this
sooner than later in your career, your job, your life I would
say elementary, elementaryschool Start saving those
(05:05):
pennies and dimes.
I did, I used to, when I was at.
I saved pennies and dimes andquarters and dollars from
birthday presents to Christmasto just because doing chores as
well, earning it as well as itbeing given to me as well.
I saved, always saved, afraction.
(05:27):
I miss that.
Michael Caine the one had hisstuff totally together and
didn't let anyone detour himuntil he grew up and then he
acted a fool, listening to otherpeople, trying to be like other
people, trying to impress otherpeople.
So I found my mind.
Try to impress other people,you know.
So I found my mind and I'mgoing to help.
(05:48):
I hope a lot of people findtheir mind If I stop listening
to other people following them.
You got to do, you be you.
And so First of all, yeah, youhave to earn money to save it.
So I'm going to have an entirepodcast about career and job
development, vocation and school, vocational or academic, and
(06:17):
we'll have a whole podcast onthat.
To earn the money so I'm atstep two here.
You have a means to earn money.
Now what to do with it?
So we're going to go On anotherepisode and just talk about the
workforce, labor, working,earning.
(06:39):
So right now I want to talkabout savings.
So so it's vitally importantthat when you earn your money,
your earmark excuse me, no frogin my throat, something like
that kind of dry.
(06:59):
Anyway, it's important that forevery dollar you earn, that you
save a portion of that for thefuture.
And keep in mind, folks, thefuture could be tomorrow you
could get a flat tire and haveto buy a new tire tomorrow,
don't you know?
(07:20):
So think in terms of short termzero to one year, and then one
to two or three years, and thenthree to four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten years.
Think in terms of segments asfar as what you need to save
your money for.
And so emergency fund isrepairs.
It could be the roof, the carstove, refrigerator breaks down,
(07:40):
bicycle, whatever.
These are necessities.
I'm not talking about thingsthat aren't necessities.
Okay, that's another podcasttip.
So we're going to use our senseand understand these are
necessities, not wants that youneed to prepare for a rainy day.
(08:01):
So let's say, for every dollarwe'll say, um, whatever you save
at is up to you, but I wouldsay as much as possible.
Now, aggressive people out there, like I once did, I saved half
of my income and then went downto 30, 25% of my income and to
(08:23):
damn near zero at one point.
That's when I lost my weight.
You know, stop saving and andjust spending it all.
And so then I got my mind back,started saving aggressively
again, and so I encourage you tostay on the road to saving that
pathway for emergency funds.
And, um, and once you have theemergency fund, which that
(08:49):
depends on your income, yourlifestyle expense, you know
could be, say, 10 percent ofyour money, 5 percent, 25
percent of your money foremergencies, or it'd be nice if
you have at least six months, atleast minimum to me.
Six months to a year, sixmonths is a drop dead is where
is where?
(09:09):
If you lost your job, you cansurvive six months to a year.
Six months is a drop dead asfar as where?
If you lost your job, you cansurvive six months for sure.
But now, outside of that,saving for survival, emergency
fund, saving for a new car, anew house, a vacation, college
for the kids, a class for you,travel for you, and so what I
(09:35):
did?
And I, oh my God, I don't knowwhat's that book's name.
Money is my Friend and I lovedthat book years ago.
I got it 30 some years ago, Idon't know where it is, and it
talked about saving, having amillionaire account, a financial
independent account.
And so I have these differentfunds of funds where one is for
(09:58):
a new vehicle, one is for travel, one is to do whatever we want
to do, one is for emergency, etcetera.
You get the idea and it's namedfor different things and it's
only used for that purpose onceit gets in there.
I know emergencies can happenwhere you need to dip, I
understand, for survival, you dowhat you got to do, but we're
(10:18):
talking about non-emergencies.
Save that money.
So it'd be nice if you couldsave.
10% would be good, 5%, 5 to 10.
Start where you are maybe 1%,but it should be something.
And so you're not alone.
(10:39):
You say, well, I'm the only onethat sucks, I'm not saving.
Well, let me give you a littlestatistic.
Right now, the householdsavings rate in the United
States is 3.90%.
So, out every dollar, you'resaving just under four cents of
every dollar.
Every $10, saving three, almost$4.
(11:04):
You get the idea that's nothing, but if it's all you can do,
it's all you can do.
Start where you are.
And the personal savings in theUnited States from 1959 till
2025, 8.40%.
Better than what it is now, butstill sucks.
(11:26):
Guess what period in history thesavings rate in the United
States just blew up.
Just great, all-time high.
You got it right the pandemic.
And 32%.
32%.
So out of every $100 earned,people were, on average, saving
(11:49):
$32.
We need to get back to thatlevel.
So just do you and worry aboutyou and pray for your other
family and friends and people.
You don't know that they dowhat they need to do too.
You can only do you.
So I encourage you to do asmuch as you can, but do
(12:11):
something.
Don't wait and say one day whenI get a better job, one day
when I, if it's pennies,whatever it is.
We're talking about thepsychology of saving money, and
that money is enough will leadinto another podcast about now
that you're saving all thismoney stream.
Where do I go on vacation?
Where do I invest my money?
What stocks, mutual funds, etfs, indexes, all that real estate?
(12:35):
Where do I invest it?
That's a whole nother episode.
But first, true, we got to earnit.
Next, we got to save it.
Save it for survival, save itfor fun and other activities in
this world.
So it's pretty piss poor.
Since the pandemic, 32% Wow.
(12:56):
In 2020 and in 2005 is a 1.40%,which is nothing, a penny on
every $10.
$10, not even a penny for everydollar.
(13:19):
So I encourage you to get a newhabit and save some money.
And I forgot maybe you want tosave for a wedding.
You want to put all that on acredit card, and a lot of those
people get divorced, by the wayand argue because they don't
have the money.
Spend up all the money on awedding as opposed to focusing
on the marriage.
Yeah, so that's another podcast.
(13:41):
I just gave you three podcastsI'm going to do in the future At
the center around just aboutsaving money and not spending
all your money.
It's not pretty.
A lot of people just foolishlyspending all their money.
They don't have anything leftover, and I'm talking about
things that are want to, notneeds.
(14:02):
It's one thing to spend it allon necessities and also you need
to teach your kids on theprinciples of saving their money
so that they can grow up to bewell-to-do.
I'm not saying filthy rich andmillionaires and all that stuff.
It's possible.
Another podcast, a lot ofpodcasts, are telling you oh,
(14:25):
they can get rich and get half50 million.
Maybe they can, but that's notthe point.
Point is to enjoy this life aswell.
It's not all about the money,but I tell you I'd rather have
money than not have it.
So, but we don't want toworship it, we just want to
respect it.
And it's a tool.
(14:45):
Money is a tool and so it'simportant that you get and use
it, just as it is a tool.
And possibly another podcast isgreed.
People get greedy and then theylose it all.
So be somewhatsemi-conservative with the bulk
of it.
Be somewhat semi-conservativewith the bulk of it.
(15:06):
Let's say 90, 95 percent andyou spend 5 percent doing risky
stuff.
If you want investing in stuffthat you may lose everything if
you put all your money in it.
So don't put all your money init.
Just have a fraction 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 percent at most, and that's
if you could afford it.
I'm not giving financial advice.
Give my opinion.
(15:27):
So it's important to have aplan, work with your significant
other and your family, havemoney talks every month, every
week, and where you discuss thedirection of the dollars the
Benjamins, so to speak and getthe kids involved so they
understand about saving.
Flexible.
(15:48):
They need to learn and not becontrolled.
You know age appropriate,obviously.
So don't want to preach to you,but just I want you to do well,
I want you to succeed and Iwant you to be able to go to the
next another podcast where it'swhat do we do with all the
savings now?
To invest some of it, save someof it, some of it air market
(16:12):
for different things that youwant to do.
Right, take a family on aEuropean vacation or something,
or?
Or just here in America is goodto stay occasions.
Do what you can Enjoy your life,stay patient, do what you can
Enjoy your life.
So I think I said it all today.
Well, I probably haven't saidit all, but I said enough.
(16:35):
So that's it.
Get your plan.
See how much you make, see howmuch you can comfortably save
each month, each week, however,you get paid.
And start from where you are.
Folks, don't beat yourself up.
If I would have, should havecould have already did that song
and dance.
Do what you can today andeverything will be okay.
(16:57):
Because why?
Because you say so, becauseyou're taking decisive action
and not just letting life pummelyou to the ground.
So that's it.
This is Living your Successwith Michael Caine 24-7, until
we see and talk to each othernext time.
Adios, my friends.
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