The economy has turned us into private analysts bent on securing our own futures. We may switch stock buys, move to more safer investment solutions, and call out our friends and family who speak on the side of resurgence in the US economy. The troubled financial times bring out a renewed interest in many of our debts and spending habits. A recent San Francisco Chronicle article reported on the state of the US economy.

The first fallacy of spending money in order to save it (you’ve saved XX dollars by shopping Safeway, says my grocery receipt) is that you can’t save money you don’t have. We are not saving by spending. We may be buying something more cheaply, but make no mistake: We’re still spending money. [Source: SFGate.com]

We need to focus on our own saving habits and on our spending habits. While the two habits become intertwined, we should have a separate plan for each in order to stay on top of our financial well-being. Let’s assume we seek out the savings on a flat screen TV, finding a deal more than 10% less than the best price anywhere else. The question then becomes, ‘Should I buy this TV, even though it’s considerably less than the same model elsewhere? Do I need it?’ Just because something is a good deal doesn’t mean its a necessary deal.

We live in a society where marketers and advertisers seek to tap into the buy now pay later mentality. Just because I can walk in and buy a fantastic new queen sized bed with no interest until 2012 doesn’t mean I should do that.

The problems with our economy seems to stem from our credit hungry ways. As individuals we can stop the bleeding by simply waiting until we can afford the items. We need to look not at just the savings, but also at our spending habits in order to heal properly the financial problems.