While most of the studies point to the fact that not enough Americans are saving for retirement or saving enough for retirement, there are a few studies out that say people may be saving too much.

The reports try to make this sound like a bad thing, but I think it would be a good thing for those people. Basically, the definition of saving too much is that they are saving more than they will need (or what it is projected that they will need) during retirement. If these people want to have a little extra during retirement, why are they being criticized for it?

The general “rules of thumb” indicate that a person should plan to have approximately 80% of their current income available for income during retirement. There are also many different retirement calculators that will determine what percentage of a person’s income needs to be saved based on age, current income, etc. While it is a good idea to at least meet the minimums that these calculations suggest. For anyone who wants to save more, I would say that it sounds like a great idea.

Saving more than is recommended will do two things for an individual. The first thing it will do is to give them more money available during retirement to live on, travel, etc. This is the obvious benefit, but there is another benefit that many people would generally overlook.

The often-overlooked benefit is that the individual would have less money to live on in their current situation. By becoming used to living with less money on a regular basis, they will require less money to maintain the same standard of living in retirement. What then happens is that the amount of “extra” money in retirement is made all the greater.

Studies may show that while the majority of people are not saving enough, some are saving “too much” for the future. To those people who save “too much” I would say keep doing it, there’s no harm in having a little extra in the later years.