I’ve been a full-time accountant for over 3 years now, and I am still amazed how many people hoard, lose and/or don’t bother to cash large checks sent to them.
With the rise of electronic payments this has become less of a problem, but in some cases a check just works better and then people sit on them. For months in many cases.
This personal anecdote plus the annual “average savings rate” statistics are sobering realities. I can only tell you to set up automatic transactions that force you to save. And if you are lucky enough to have a 401k with matching, please take advantage. Otherwise, you are throwing away free money.
Carl Oberg 