There's no reason to stop as long as job growth is strong, incomes are rising quickly, confidence is high, the stock market is booming. There is a bit of a risk because consumers are taking down more debt. Anything after that is considered savings. Keith Leggit is a senior economist with the American Bankers Association. The problem that you have is that the way the government measures savings and how households measure savings is vastly different.
Households look at savings based on what's happening to their wealth.
And so therefore, they take into consideration asset price appreciation. But financial experts are still worried Americans aren't putting enough away for retirement. Economist Mark Zandi blames it on the meteoric rise in stock prices. Zandi says those kinds of stock market profits are unsustainable. In fact, some economists worry a decline in stock prices could abruptly siphon the gas out of the U.S. economic engine.