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Charles Schwab (NASDAQ:SCHW): Americans Paying Down Debt and Saving More


Thursday, March 4th, 2010

According to Charles Schwab (NASDAQ:SCHW), the financial behavior of Americans has made a significant change coming about from the economic crisis, as more of them are focusing on paying down their debt and saving money, more than any other financial activity at this time.

Schwab says their clients and the clients of other financial advisers are looking at developing a strategy for their capital, and aren't simply building up a portfolio without taking into consideration the overall financial health and strategy the need to employ to be successful.

Consequently, this has been great for those looking at overall financial health, just like they will look at their physical health in a holistic manner.

This should offer a competitive advantage for companies targeted this new attitude and lifestyle among Americans, who are finally opened up to the idea of taking care of their financial health as much as their physical health.

The Schwab Adivsor Services unit of Schwab recently surveyed a number of financial advisers and found the vast majority of their clients to continue in their new savings focus, while also continuing to pay down their enormous debt load.

All of this is good of course, but financial advisers are using this time of openness to push their clients to save even more, recommending they put aside at least 9 percent of their personal income into savings. That's more than double the current savings rate of 4 percent Americans now practice.

One final important practice more people are engaging in is to be more involved in the financial process, and not just putting their money with a broker and leaving it up to them to make the financial decisions for them.

The new role for successful financial advisers will be those who will offer superior and consistent services, especially with those who advisers looking at their clients as active partners in the process rather than the former practice of largely being a silent partner.



Article by Gary B

The views expressed are the subjective opinion of the article's author and not of FinancialAdvisory.com



Tags: charles schwab , financial planning , paying down debt , saving money