Yesterday’s luxuries are today’s necessities
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, February 1, 2007
Opposites don’t necessarily attract, particularly when it comes to money.
A recent report found that nearly two-thirds of spouses were on the same page about saving. That is, they agreed to save, or they agreed not to. But they agreed.
“It’s a piece of folk wisdom” that opposites attract, says Cary Funk, a senior researcher at Pew Research Center. “It’s more common for people to be attracted to those who resemble themselves.”
This tidbit on couples’ finances is part of a broader look by Pew at Americans’ attitudes about money and life’s necessities, based on interviews last fall with 2,000 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
One surprising finding, Funk says, was how quickly items that just a decade ago largely were considered luxuries have become considered necessities.
For instance, 32 percent of consumers couldn’t live without a microwave a decade ago. It’s 68 percent today.
When Pew asked people questions about products in 1996, some items weren’t on the list. Now they register as necessities. Forty-nine percent say they need a cell phone, 29 percent require high-speed Internet access, 5 percent must have a flat-screen TV and 3 percent can’t do without an iPod.
The No. 1 necessity then and now: a car.
As far as savings, Americans are a paradox. Most of us say we are on a continuous search for ways to save but in the next breath admit we don’t salt away nearly enough.
Pew doesn’t offer answers on why Americans are such poor savers, although researchers say they found little evidence to support the so-called “wealth effect.” This theory says consumers feel free to spend and not save because the values of their homes and stock portfolios are rising.
Other findings to learn from:
