[IloveHN84]

Are actually Germans big savers? Living here for almost 10 years, I've NEVER found anyone saving money..the majority burn their salary month per month or burn their short 'savings' in more-than-they-could-afford vacations, like entire months in US or Australia.

[radicalbyte]

I assume from your username that you're in your mid-30s. If that's so, then it's a largely generational thing.

The generations in Western Europe who are 45-50+ have considerable wealth and thus have been able to save. For the generations below it's not really possible, on a macro level, to save money. They need all their money for housing and what's left to try to keep up the pretense that they're as successful as their elders.

[majewsky]

To counter your anecdata with some anecdata of my own, my savings rate right now is around 48%, as in: I spend 52% of my income. I'm currently implementing some lifestyle changes that are going to push the savings rate over 50%.

I'm not trying to deliberately pinch pennies. (Well, maybe a little.) I just happen to live in a way that avoids big spending. I don't have kids, so I don't need to spend money on that. Because I don't have kids, I don't need a large house. Therefore I live in an apartment in the city center, which (besides being convenient) means I don't need a car. And so on.

> the majority burn their salary month per month

I obviously don't know your sample, but out of the people that I know, those who live paycheck-to-paycheck usually do so because they work in low-wage jobs that simply don't pay enough to save any money. There surely are outliers that just don't know how money works, but the majority fail to save because of low-wage jobs.

[flukus]

I'm pretty similar to you, although on the other side of the world in Australia with the ~50% going into paying off apartment rather than saving right now (the only debt I've ever taken on) and much of the 50% I do spend is government sin taxes. But living within your means, not taking on debt (especially for frivolous things) and saving was instilled by my English father, I never knew it was a German attitude, just basic financial responsibility.

That financial responsibility has saved me too, during an unemployed stint I was living off the extra money I'd put against my apartment. Had I not put the money away or gone into more debt to buy a bigger apartment I would have lost it entirely and been back to renting.

The idea of living on credit is insane to me.

[majewsky]

I think that my strongest influence in that regard was my grandmother. She was born in 1937 and experienced WW2 firsthand, and her formative years were spent in East Germany when society was slowly reconstructing itself after the devastations of the war.

[rad_gruchalski]

> my savings rate right now is around 48%

Self employed with Gewerbesteuer?

[majewsky]

No, regular salaried employee. Those 48% are for income after tax.

[rad_gruchalski]

Ah, the number sounded so familiar! Nice, keep it going!

[jaclaz]

It depends how you make calculations, but yes, globally savings in Germany are "high" see here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gross_nat...

Germany: 27.4 % GDP

As a comparison:

USA 16.9 % GDP UK 15.8 % GDP

[gumby]

Germans are huge penny pinchers (and why not?). When Walmart tried to take on Germany and offered free bags as they do in the US, German shoppers were convinced that Walmart’s prices must be higher to support such an extravagance.

It should be no surprise that Aldi and Lidl are German companies.

[pjmlp]

Actually compared with southern Europe culture, everyone here (NRW) seems crazy about collecting all sorts of coupons and waiting until most stores offer like double discounts.

While back home most people would resort to black market or bazaar.

[segmondy]

They might also be lying to you. ;-) I know savers that pretend that they have none. They cry with everyone about how they are broke, but are actually saving great. They don't want folks asking to borrow money, and they don't want to be the odd one out, so part of socializing is acting like everyone in public, but doing otherwise behind the scenes. I knew a few such folks in college, party animals on the outside, but quiet studious when everyone else is asleep.

[macspoofing]

From the article: "The country’s savings rate was around 10% in 2017, almost twice the euro-area average ... On average, Germans held more than 40% of their financial assets in the form of bank deposits in 2018."

It's usually perilous to extrapolate anecdotes to the population.