Fahd Amer Al-Ahmadi Al-Riyadh As a society, we do not care about or seem to be aware of the importance of saving money. All we do with money is spend it on important and unimportant things. I recently watched an interview with a Saudi Credit and Savings Bank manager on the Al-Arabiya channel. During the interview, he said most Saudis spend their salaries on personal services (22 percent) and rent and utility bills (19 percent). I once wrote an article in which I wondered where and how Saudis spend their money and compared their spending habits with those of other people around the world. Before getting into details, I would like to note that the overall spending average is on the increase. In fact, the more civilized the society and the more educated the parents, the higher the average spending. A Japanese family spends most of its income on education followed by South Koreans, Taiwanese, and the residents of Hong Kong. Americans spend most of their income on telecommunications and transportation while the French focus on housing, health, and expensive accessories such as perfumes, cosmetics, etc. The Germans spend most of their income on entertainment and very expensive modern products. The British love to buy things from the Internet. Regardless of the priorities of families in rich countries, families spend so much money on their children that this money could help an entire family in a poor country get by for a month. For example, the money spent on a child could help 10 families in Sierra Leone and Sudan get by. I read recently that raising a child in the UK costs a lot of money since a family pays SR3,600 a month at a daycare center to take care of one child. The costs in the US are less than half this amount. Anyway, whether it is SR3,600 or SR1,500, either amount can help a poor family living south of the Sahara get by for a year. Apparently, Arab families are not aware of the importance of saving and continue to spend money on commodities. Arab families spend 45 percent of their income on food because they do not realize the importance of long-term saving or of saving money for their children's education. It appears, according to a study published by Al-Watan daily, that Arabs care only about food with Egypt on top at 52 percent followed by Iraq at 49 percent, Syria at 48 percent, Lebanon at 44 percent, Jordan at 40 percent and Saudi Arabia at 32 percent. Earning a big salary will not allow you to save money if you cannot control your needs. The real solution lies in your ability to save some money regardless of whether your salary is high or low.
